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THE LIGHT OF PERSIA 



OR 



The Death of Mammon 

AND OTHER 

...POEMS OF... 

PROPHECY 

....PROFIT.... 

^ND PEACE 



33 



Together with Nearly Three Hundred Citations 

QUOTED FROM 

THE LEARNED OF ALL LANDS" 

Which have a direct bearing not only on the Poems, but 
♦ upon the burning questiojis of the day 



By Gkorgk p. McIntyr 



CHICAGO: 

THK wage WORKERS' PUBLISHING CO., 
1890. 




COPYRIGHTED BY 

THE WAGE WORKERS' PUBLISHING CO. 

1890. 

ALL EIGHTS EESERVED. 



" I have gathered a posie of other men's flowers, 
and nothing but the thread that binds them together 
is my own." — Montaigne. 



No. 17. 

ENCYCLICAL. 

1818. 



" The old earth reels inebriate with guilt, 
And vice grown bold laughs innocence to scorn. 
The thirst for gold hath made men demons ! 
Till the heart of him who feels the impulse of 

impartial love ; 
Nor kneels in worship foul to Mammon, is 

contemned. 
The poor man's tears are unregarded. 
And he whose righteous way departs from evil, 
Makes himself a prey." — Keais, 



PREFACE. 



Herbert Spencer says the great superstition 
of the past was the divine right of kings ; the 
great superstition of the the present is the di- 
vine right of parliaments (legislatures). As 
the divinity of God kept the people poor the 
divinity of Government perpetuates the curse. 
It seems to me that all who advocate Indi- 
vidual Sovereignty should direct all their ener- 
gies against the superstition of the State. All 
men agree as to the pernicious and corrupting 
influence of politics, but most of them look 
upon it as essential in the preliminary of gov- 
ernment, which is necessary." — A. L. Ballou. 

Is it at all surprising that the number of 
those who hold the opinion of the Church in 
light esteem should so rapidly increase ? How 
can that be received as a trustworthy guide in 
the invisible which falls into so many errors in 
the visible ? How can that give confidence in 



6 THE LIGHT OF PERSIA ; OR 

the moral, the spiritual, which has so signally 
failed in the physical ? It is not possible to 
dispose of these conflicting facts as " empty 
shadows," '^ vain devices," " errors wearing the 
deceitful appearance of truth," as the Church 
stigmatizes them. On the contrary, they are 
stern witnesses, bearing emphatic and unim- 
peachable testimony against the ecclesiastical 
claim to infallibilit}^, and fastening a convic- 
tion of ignorance and blindness upon her. — 
Prof. Draper. 

" We cannot make people good by suppres- 
sion. If we would have superior characters, 
we must develop men's intellects, affections, 
conscience. We must so train them that it 
shall become a pleasure to them to do the right 
and shun the wrong. When people's minds 
are fully developed, they will do right of their 
own accord. They will not need to be con- 
stantly watched." — Secular Thought. 

" The growing good of the world is partly 
dependent on unhistoric acts ; and that things 
are not so ill with you and me as they might 
have been, is half owing to the number who 



THE DEATH OF MAMMON. 7 

lived faithfully a hidden life and rest in unvis- 
ited tombs." — George Eliot, 

*' The economic questions now agitating 
mankind are at bottom moral questions. The 
right of property, for instance, is assailed. 
The public teacher should examine whether 
there is such a thing as a moral basis of prop- 
erty, and if so what that basis is. Laborers 
demand a greater share of the products of their 
labor. It is important to inquire whether there 
is such a thing as a just proportion between 
labor and the fruits of labor. The State is 
called upon to interfere in behalf of the work- 
ing classes. The vastly significant question 
arises whether the State has moral functions 
to perform or not, and if it has, how far it may 
be justified in attempting to modify the eco- 
nomic conflict. Our moral teachers, if they 
enter the struggle between laborers and capi- 
talists as mediators without adequate knowl- 
edge of the subjects they attempt to handle, 
will fall into deserved contempt 

" When it is considered how widely the reli- 
gious beliefs of the past, with all the m^oral 
checks and safeguards which they implied. 



8 THE LIGHT OF PERSIA ; OR 

have been abandoned at the present day, it 
cannot but be felt that a great danger threat- 
ens our democratic communities in the absence 
of any effective substitute for those teachings. 
When we consider, on the other hand, how the 
forces of conservatism are everywhere banding 
themselves together to maintain reactionary 
ideas, to keep the education of children and 
students, the schools and universities in their 
hands, we cannot but wonder that those who 
desire progress should thus far have failed to 
make any strong counter efforts to build insti- 
tutions dedicated to freedom, as those others 
are to authority." — From the Proposed School 
of Applied Ethics. 

^' Good people who hold opinions not com- 
monly understood, generally have a bad name. 
The world is ready to believe almost anything 
of a man except that he is a genuinely good 
man. If his life is stainless but unconven- 
tional, the world suspects some hidden shame 
or base motive. So far are most people from 
understanding or desiring what is true and 
right that the highest truth is often believed 
to be the lowest lie, and the purest right is 
looked upon as the blackest wrong. 



THE DEATH OF MAMMON. 9 

" Thus Jesus, who was the incarnation of 
earnest goodness, was said by the Pharisees to 
be possessed of a devil. That was because 
their own souls were so false that their moral 
visions were distorted. They looked upon 
goodness and thought it was badness. Thus 
also the early Christians were accused of in- 
dulging in lecherous orgies, when in reality 
they were living lives of great purity. It was 
only that they held unpopular doctrines ; doc- 
trines which most people did not, perhaps 
could not understand. Many persons under- 
stand their own selfishness, deceitfulness, 
greediness, and they cannot understand that 
there may be others who are unselfish, frank, 
and generous." — Hugh O. Pentecost. 



lO THE LIGHT OF PERSIA ; OR 



"The men who most fear "Paternalism" in government 
have no dread of " Infernalism " of monopoly. * — JV. //. T. 
Wakefield. 



DEDICATORY. 



To the power that is behind Evolution, and 
to the author of the following poem, Mr. James 
G. Clark, whose manly courage I reverence 
and would emulate, and who, in my judgment, 
stands without a peer — the greatest living poet 
— the only one in these ultra-modern days of 
Shoddy, Creed and Cant, who has ''dared" to 
voice in soul-stirring generalizations,'-' but 
nevertheless "in no uncertain language," the 
miseries of the poor ; and to Georgina, my 
wife, sharer of my life's work, with joys too 
few, with sorrows too many, this book is tear- 
fully, yet fearlessly, dedicated, in the hope 
that it may cause men and women to stop and 
inquire : 

" Whither are we drifting ?" 



1 2 "THE LIGHT OF PERSIA ; OR 

THE VOICE OF THE PEOPLE. 

"Swing inward, O gates of the future, 

Swing outward ye doors of the past, 
For the soul of the people is moving 

And rising from slumber at last ; 
The black forms of night are retreating. 

The white peaks have signaled the day, 
And Freedom her long roll is beating, 

And calling her sons to the fray. 

And woe to the rule that has plundered 

And trod down the wounded and slain. 
While the wars of the Old Time have thundered 

And men poured their life tide in vain ; 
The day of its triumph is ending. 

The evening draws near with its doom, 
And the star of its strength is descending 

To sleep in dishonor and gloom. 

Swing inward, O gates ! till the morning 

Shall paint the brown mountains in gold. 
Till the life and the love of the New Time 

Shall conquer the hate of the Old. 
Let the face and the hand of the Master 

No longer be hidden from view, 
Nor the lands He prepared for the many 

Be trampled and robbed by the few. 

The soil tells the same fruitful story, 
The seasons their bounties display, 



THE DEATH OF MAMMON. 13 

And the flowers lift their faces in glory 

To catch the warm kisses of day ; 
While our fellows are treated as cattle 

That are muzzled when treading the corn, 
And millions sink down in life's battle 

With a sigh for the day they were born. 

Must the sea plead in vain that the river 

May return to its mother for rest, 
And the earth beg the rain clouds to give her 

Of dews they have drawn from her breast ? 
Lo ! the answer comes back in a mutter 

From domes where the quick lightnings glow, 
And from heights where the mad waters utter 

Their warning to dw^ellers below. 

And woe to the robbers who gather 

In fields where they never have sown, 
Who have stolen the jewels from labor 

And builded to Mammon a throne ; 
For the snow-king asleep by the fountains 

Shall wake in the summer's hot breath, 
And descend in his rage from the mountains 

Bearing terror, destruction and death. 

And the throne of their god shall be crumbled, 
And the scepter be swept from his hand, 

And the heart of the haughty be humbled, 
And a servant be chief in the land, — 

And the Truth and the Power united 
Shall rise from the graves of the True, 



14 THE LIGHT OF PERSIA ; OR 

And the wrongs of the Old Time be righted 
In the might and the light of the New. 

For the Lord of the harvest hath said it — 

Whose lips never uttered a lie, 
And His prophets and poets have read it 

In symbols of earth and of sky, 
That to him who has reveled in plunder 

Till the angel of conscience is dumb, 
The shock of the earthquake and thunder 

And tempest and torrent shall come. 

Swing inward, O gates of the future ! 

Swing outward ye doors of the past ! 
A giant is waking from slumber 

And rending his fetters at last, — 
From the dust, where his proud tyrants found him 

Unhonored and scorned and betrayed, 
He shall rise with the sunlight around him 

And rule in the realm he has made." 

— -James G. Clark. 



*The poems herewith presented aim to specify and 
lay the blame for present iniquitous conditions where 
they belong. 

The Author. 



INTRODUCTION. 



If the above term can partake in part, an 
autobiography in part, this, then, is an intro- 
duction. 



That we have classes and class-privileges 
fostered by our system of government, no one, 
not even the most conservative, may gainsay. 
Recognizing the potency of the truism, that: 
'^ Revolutions come from above," — it is the 
purpose of that part of this book devoted to 
Quotations, and, their arrangement in con- 
nection with my poems, to strengthen and 
reafi&rm that proposition, and to prove that it 
is a "Mooted question" no longer; but that it 
is a fact in name, and in deed, and that here 
in these *' United States" the boasted " Home 
of the free!" and the "Land of the brave!" 
that we have not freedom, and that we have 



l6 THE LIGHT OF PERSIA ; OR 

not, as a nation, any bravery to spare ; but, 
rather, that we are a nation of slaves, without 
bravery, without moral courage even to main- 
tain what few rights are yet left to us as a 
people, and that we deserve not the name of 
freemen, and that now, as I write, we are in 
the midst of the grandest Revolution the world 
has ever experienced, and that we have not 
the common honesty and bravery to recognize 
its presence and make of it what it eventually 
will be, the kindest friend to the whole people, 
or the worst foe to the certain few. Recog- 
nizing also other truisms, that : ^' Real his 
tory is a history of tendencies and not of 
events," and, that : '' Revolutions never go 
backwards," we are prepared to allay the fears 
of the timid, assuage the '' cares" of the craven, 
and hasten to say, that, human nature can be 
thoroughly relied upon in this as in every 
other age. 

Simultaneous with oppression comes the 
desire to redress the wrongs meted out to 
" poor weak humanity," and that this desire 
is perfectly natural, proves also that it is per- 
fectly right, just and proper. 

The greedy knave, and the cowardly slave^ 



THE DEATH OF MAMMON. 17 

have ever preached the " Let Alone" theory 
until really nice men have come to speak of it 
parrot-like, taking their ' Cue' from interested 
parties who are " Eminently Respectable" and 
are perfectly satisfied with things as they are. 
To the latter class we have nothing to say. 
But, to the really nice people^ the leaders of 
Sunday schools, etc., etc., the " respectable 
middle class," and to all those 'hangers on' to 
the ragged end of our so-called society — these 
people who seem (?) to be totally unconscious 
of the scorn and contempt they are subjected 
to by that pre-eminently respectable class — 
the satisfied, arrogant, haughty, the proud (?) 
the vicious, base and mean, who demanded 36 
per cent, interest for the use of their money 
during our nations need (?) — these i?nitators 
of vampires like-to-these, these really nice 
people. — the doubtless holders of government 
bonds from which they draw '' comfortable 
livings," these are the people with whom I 
most desire an audience ; for they are the one 
stumbling block in the way of all true prog- 
ress ; but not for long, they will soon be called 
upon to ' take a hand' in the impending ca- 
tastrophy which will be sure to find them all 



l8 THE LIGHT OF PERSIA ; OR 

unprepared, because of their allegiance to the 
'' Laissez faire." 

It is the purpose of this compilation, to- 
gether with the poems herewith presented, to 
reach a solution to the constantly increasing 
and most vexing question of capitalists and 
laborers. 

That each have rights, according to the in- 
dividualistic theory, which the other is not in 
duty bound to respect may not be gainsaid, 
but who can deny, that a system which breeds 
wrongs to whatever class, is totally wrong 
and altogether unnecessary ? It is with this 
system as with an individual — " What you 
are rings so loud in my ears that I cannot 
hear what you say to the contrary." 

It is generally conceded that Evolution is 
no longer a theory, but that it is a cold, hard 
fact beyond the power of controversy and 
therefore wholly right because wholly natural : 
and as through evolution the " Light " has 
come to me, so will I impart that light in the 
classification and arrangement of my poems, 
giving the year, and, far as may be, the month 
in which each poem was written, to prove that 
by evolution alone I am, what I am. 



THE DEATH OF MAMMON. 



19 



Just old enough to " lug wood " when the 
civil war broke out, in which my father and 
three brothers took a manly part and served 
''during the war" with credit to themselves 
and honor to the nation : it will be remem- 
bered by thousands, that in the early stages 
of the war, " Uncle Sam " did not provide his 
" heroes " with money, and, dependent fam- 
ilies suffered deprivations and hardships which 
are spoken of with pain to this day. 

The screws of the money power were thus 
early fastened upon me : then came " flush 
times " almost before I was old enough to 
appreciate the meaning of them. 

With little schooling, at thirteen years of 
age, I went out into the excitement of the 
times to " seek my fortune " but in reality to 
drift, drift, drift a creature of circumstance to 
which, save a period of five years, there has 
been no cessation, until, at times, I have been 
led to think that life was not worth living ; 
and right here I want to state, that the sui. 
cides of the past fifteen years, have been crea- 
tures of my age. 

The five years above referred to were spent 
in world wide travel, as a son by adoption, in 



20 THE LIGHT OF PERSIA ; OR 

company with a millionaire, who, were he alive 
to-day, would doubtless be of the Laisezfaire 
stamp,but who nevertheless " loved me dearly," 
so much so that he debauched my young life 
with examples of the " man of the world, " 
encouraging every impulse of luxury, indo- 
lence and viciousness, but which terminated 
suddenly upon our return to New York after 
vainly trying to persuade me to marry his 
step-daughter, whom I could not love. 

I speak of these phases of my early life to 
prove that through long suffering I have 
earned the right to say my say, and that my 
heart keenly throbs for my fellows. But, " I 
can always be stronger as myself than I can 
be as any one else." 

We have no merit of our own in pleading, 

No grace of mind, no nobleness of heart ; 
Soul leaps to soul, the Master interceding, 
Imbues each man with strength to do his part. 

Then will ye do it, ye men of ' ' higher station, ' ' 
Who draw your rations easil}- everj^ da}^ ? 

If not, there is not room in all this fair creation, 
For some to live, who live, but never pa}^ " 

G. P. M. 

Chicago 15th, January 1890. 



FREE SPEECH. 



" This is true liberty, when free-born men 
Having to advise the public, may speak free !" 

— Etiripides. 

"No greater calamity could come upon the 
people than the absence of free speech." 

— Demosthenes. 

" Give me the liberty to know, to utter, and 
to argue, freely according to conscience, above 
all liberties." — Milton. 

" To-day is so like yesterday, in cheats ; 
We take the lying sister for the same." 

— Young. 

'' Thought in the mine may come forth gold or 

dross ; 
When coin'd words we know its real worth." 

— Young. 



22 THE LIGHT OF PERSIA ; OR 

'* Hast thou no friend to set thy mind abroach? 
Good sense will stagnate. Thoughts, shut up, 

want air, 
And spoil, like bales unopened to the sun." 

— Young. 

" Speech ventilates our intellectual fire ; 
Speech burnishes our mental magazine; 
Brightens for ornament, and whets for use." 

— Young. 

^^ The sun might as easily be spared from 
the universe as free speech from the liberal in- 
stitutions of society." — Socrates. 

'' In the body politic the spirit of freedom is 
as the red corpuscles in the blood, it carries the 
life with it." — Prof. John Fiske. 

" The appeal of soul to soul is more potent 
than law backed by majorities and standing 
armies." — E. H. Hey wood. 

" Better a thousand fold abuse of Free 
Speech ; the abuse dies in a day, but the denial 
slays the life of the people and entombs the 
hope of the race." — Charles Bradlaugh, 



THE DEATH OF MAMMON. 23 

^^ I had rather be behind prison bars with the 
consciousness of having raised my voice in de- 
fence of downtrodden humanity, than tread the 
streets a free man (?) with ray tongue bri- 
dled."— 6^^^. P. Mclntyre. 

" If you desire to better the condition of 
people by agitation, the first step is to assure 
yourself that you will not be denied the right 
to agitate ; to secure beyond a peradventure 
the uninterrupted exercise of your constitu- 
tional right of free assemblage, free speech and 
free press : yea, free as the winds of heaven, 
for less than this is not freedom." — An extract 
from a speech by the Hon. David Overmyer, 
delivered on Labor Day, at Topeka, Kan., 
Sept. 2d, 1889. 

AGITATION. 
The coward is afraid of agitation. The ty- 
rant, the oppressor, the wrongdoer and the 
whole train of enemies to human rights and 
human prosperity fear agitation. The whole 
pack of obstructionists to progress are always 
ready to yell professional agitator when agita- 
tion begins to shake the foundations of error 



2 4 THE LIGHT OF PERSIA ; OR 

and oppression. Whatever progress the world 
has made in the recognition of human liberty 
and human rights, is the fruits of agitation. 
Lovejoy was murdered while the mob screamed 
that he was a professional agitator; Garrison 
was led through the streets of Boston with a 
rope about his neck because he was guilty of 
the ^'crime" of being an agitator. Phillips was 
hissed and rotten-egged because he would agi- 
tate ; a half a million of men were slaughtered 
in our late w^ar because it had been determined 
to put a stop to agitation. But the agitation 
went on ; it fairly blazed over the grave of 
Lovejoy ; it became hotter with every step that 
Garrison took while in the hands of the mob ; 
it swelled in volume as the eggs flew at Phil- 
lips ; it was taken up by new men and women 
as Anthony Burns went back into slavery. It 
could not be stilled, for it was an agitation of 
immutable truth. That is the only sort of 
agitation that troubles the world. It never 
finds fault with the agitation of error. The 
friends of error and injustice know that the 
agitation will lead to victory and their down- 
fall, just as sure as bhe sun rises and sets. — 
Western Rural. 

AGITATE ! 



THE DEATH OF MAMMON. 25 

" Come one, come all ! this rock shall fly 
From its firm base as soon as I !" 

— Scott, 

'' Organization," cries number one. 
'^ Co-operation,'^ shouts another. 
^' More greenbacks," says the third. 
" Moral suasion," bellows the fourth. 
'^ Prohibition,'' feebly cries the fifth. 
"Too much population," wails the sixth. 
"Eight hours," says the seventh. 
" Ethical culture," says the eighth. 
" Strike," hisses the ninth. 
"Dynamite," whipers the tenth. 
" Overproduction," shouts the capitalist. 
" Trust in the Lord," moans the parson. 
And " Protection," yells the greatest robber 
on ^2iX\}ci.—From the Remedy. 

" And, sir! is this not worth contending for, 
to die for if need be ?" — Hammond, 

Abolition of Wage Slavery. 
Abolition of Private Property. 
Abolition of Money. 
Abolition of Poverty. 



26 THE LIGHT OF PERSIA; OR 

Abolition of War. 
Abolition of the Legal Fraternity. 
Abolition of Taxes. 
Abolition of the Jury System. 
And the establishment of the social equality 
of the sexes. 

The sum of Looking Backward, 



THK DEATH OF MAMMON. 27 



"Men of thought ! be up and stirring night and day ! 
Sow the seed — withdraw the curtain — clear the way. 

Men of action, aid and cheer them, as ye may ! 
There's a fount about to stream, 
There's a Ught about to beam, 
There's a warmpth about to glow, 
There's a flower about to blow ; 

There's a midnight blackness changing into gray. 

Men of thought and man of action, clear the way ! 
I come from the ether, cleft hotly aside, 
Through the air of the soft summer morning ; 
I come with a song as I dash on my way, — 
Both a dirge and a message of warning : 
No sweet, idle dreams, nor romance of love, 
Nor poet's soft balm breathing story 
Of armor-clad knights, at tournament gay. 
Where a scarf was the guerdon of glory ; — 

Whistling so arily Past the ear warily. 
Watching me narrowl}', 
Crashing I come !" 

— So7ig of the Cannon Ball. 



28 THE LIGHT OF PERSIA ; OR 



*• We do not take possession of our ideas but are possessed by 
them. 
They master us and force us into the arena, 
Where, like gladiators, we must fight for them." 

— Heine, 



THE DEATH OF MAMMON. ^9 

YEARNINGS. 

Hast thou to me a meaning, 
O life of idle dreaming — 
Always dreaming — ever seeming 

To be, what nothing is ? 
Is there no field of duty, 
No aim — no wish for booty — 
No secret, ideal beauty 

Inspired of life, as this ? 

All joys have I tasted, 

Young years in pleasure wasted, 

And hope is dead, or saited 

With life yet undefined — 
Does aught remain worth seeing ; 
That would arouse my being 
Into action, living, freeing ! 

This yearning of the mind ? 

Is there no rule to measure. 
This thirst disgusting leisure, — 
No round of idle pleasure 

That one has not forgot ? 
Can'st tell me why this ^^earning 
lyife discovers, not discerning — 
This inward, seething, burning 

To be, one knows not what ? 

Do'st know of one deep feeling ; 
The heart or mind concealing, 



30 THE LIGHT OF PERSIA ; OR 

That would' St, by now revealing 
Allay this cursed pain ? 

Is there nought in all creation, 

That can b}^ conjuration ; 

Or by holy inspiration 
Awake to life again ? 

O ! ye who groan with labor — 
Who toil and growl at labor — 
" Whose lives no pleasures savor (?)" 

This 1-a-b-o-r would ye shirk ? — 
Would I could change my being. 
Into muscles tough, worth seeing ; 
Into Nature-toughened-freeing ! 

Gladly would I work. 

Then rouse ye into action ! 
Into persistent action, 
Disgrace no more your Saxon 

Tradition's, or its laws ; 
*' Be up ! and ever doing" — 
*' Fame comes with earnest wooing" 
And to ' ' keep the kettle stewing' ' 

Must be action before cause ! 



AN APOSTROPHE TO LUNA. 

Thou southern orb of night ! 
Thy disc of burnished gold ; 



THE DEATH OF MAMMON. 3 1 

Blending silver in its light 

Subdues a jagged world, 
And gives to it a beauty born of the Omnipotent. 

A chill to discontent 
In mortals, gazing upon the night, 

Where splendor is revealed 
In one harmonious light ; 

Becalmed, subdued, concealed — 
From all but inward self ; 
With pride ; the fiendish motor at its back 
To urge it on and off the track 
Of peace so yearned for 

In answer to prayer for light ! 
To shine forth upon the night — 
Aurora's nucleus silent shines afar, 
The myriad diamond-ray's of one great star, 

As shines the human heart, on earth, in heaven. 

What boots it then to mortals given 
The right to peace on earth — 

The hope of peace in heaven ; 
Where pride is not, where strife is not, 

Where all is light and beauty. 

And love is inward duty 
Freed from strife ! 
Freed from all the discontents of life ! 

Freed from hopes blighted, 
Freed from vow's plighted that broken be 
In our Halo of light, 
' ETERNITY ! 



32 THE LIGHT OF PERSIA ; OR 

THE PESSIMIST. 

AD REFERENDUM. 

" Hate the evil and love the good, and establish justice in the 

gate Let justice roll down as waters, 

and righteousness as a mighty stream." — Hebrew Propliecy. 

'' My child, you must not pick that rose or the man will cut 
your years off, and you must not run on the grass! Don't you 
see what it says on that board?" — Lincohi Park. 

" It is because a few have got control of all the avenues of 
wealth, of all the channels of profit, and appropriated the pro- 
ceeds of the labor of the many. They fence in every fountain, 
and bestride every stream and dole out the waters grudgingly, 
in small quantities, and for snch services as they themselves 
shall command, — The Voice of Labor, by David Overmyer. 

"Work on, do the work provided, whether work of brain or 
hand, as a " God-given task. Work, work, work; pray, pray, 
pray." — Rev. Dr. Harris. 



The following stanzas appeared in the Chi- 
cago Herald^ Sunday, March 20th, 1887 : 

I live too much away from nature's own, 

Its woods, its streams, its hills and cooling shades — 

I would exchange the city's busy streets 

For fields and flow'rs and emerald everglades. 

The woods that spread their mantle over me 

Spake peace as sweet as primal man has known ; 

And I would be as free from guile as he 
Whom God first chose to be his very own. 



THE DEATH OF MAMMON. 33 

The streams that glide mid grazing pastures green 
Have, too, a tongue articulating low, 

Which voice the soul with pebbled music sweet, 
And thrills with life the hopes of long ago. 

The hills of hope high purpose gave to youth, 
Are still too high for wayworn feet to tread ; 

And I would turn again to youth replete 

With hope as pure as though it were not dead. 

The shades of life are manifold and deep, 

And shroud in gloom the glowing hopes of youth — 

And I would turn to those refreshing glades 
My bare feet trod when hope w^as very truth. 

The woods of life are circumscribed and bare. 
That once were vast, mysterious and wild ; 

And boyhood's dream has turned to fell despair 
That man's estate and hope is but a child. 

The streams of time are sluggish to the dip 
Of oars that lashed its surface into foam — 

The strength of steam cannot some depths reveal 
That yield to chance from naught but surface loam. 

The fields that yield their golden-weighted grain 
Are sheaved and housed by idle hands to-day — 

No more it grows for him whose labor gains 
The sweat of brow, too oft his only pay (?). 

The rose that blooms so fragrant on the lawn 
Is quite beyond these eager hands of mine ; 



34 THE LIGHT OF PERSIA ; OR 

It, too, is chance to circumstance the same 
That causes much the ownership of time (?). 

The air we breathe is but another tool 
To work for some unto another's woe ; 

It, too, is worth so much per cubic foot, 

And brings its price with stifling overflow (?). 

The light which streams up from the glowing dawn, 
That gilds the day for every mortal part ; 

It, too, is turned, perverted on its course 

To warm ihe soul, by brick and mortar art (?). 

The laws of God, so binding on the poor, 
Are null and void unto the subtle rich ; 

Whose paper floats exempt from taxes, all 

Evidence unknown, except to some poor wretch (?), 

The pools that bask so smiling in the sun 
Too soon will roll in vapors overhead ; 

The kine will come to slake their thirst in vain, 
And wondering gaze upon its empty bed (?). 

And so to each and every creature thing 

Some good there is, but for some others more ; 

And I would turn to youth and hope again, 
And flee the streets to some lone sylvan shore. 



AGITATE ! 



THE DEATH OF MAMMON. 35 



TOO LATE. 

" A begger in the wide world astray, 

Knocked at a door the other day, 
When another came forth to him and said : 

'Brother of mine, proceed upon thy way; 

To seek a shelter thou in vain art come; 

Too many of us are here — there's no more room, — 
The beggar was found a short way thence, dead, ' ' 

■X- 

A powerful ruffian, you the folk oppressed: 

The tyrant hung an order on your breast; 

When as a traitor rumor branded you, 

The stranger gave you order number two. 

To-day a rebel to your former king, 

Now from your button-hole new crosses swing; 

But your crosses, chevalier. 

Graveyard crosses all appear; 

For every cross that glitters on your vest 

Marks where a virtue died within your breast. 

— Translated for the Transatlantic. 

Against the frowning front of wrong, 

He flung the ardor of his soul ! 
While mute beheld the craven throng, 

Or owned, like slaves, the base control. 
But bright on History's honored page 

Shall shine the deed we spurn to-day ; 
And men, in some heroic age. 

Will own : Hej bi^azoned freedom's way. 

— Francis M. Milne ^ in San Francisco Star. 



The following stanzas appeared in the Chi- 
cago Herald^ Sunday, February 26th, 1888: 

He who hath lived and left no word or sign 
To tell posterity of his glorious youth, 
When hope was at its full, and love and truth 

Coursed through his veins, a tide of life divine, 
Has missed the acme of his mortal part, 
And filched from Him whose love was in his heart. 



2,6 THE LIGHT OF PERSIA ; OR 

He who hath looked upon the face of day, 
Nor marveled at induction's high command, 
With God in all he views on every hand, 

Nor felt a thrill that broadened all his way, 
Has missed the intent of existence here, 
If he leave no mark of value with his peer. 

He who hath stood beneath yon starry sky, 
And, gazing on that canopy of gold, 
Nor felt the God within him so unfold. 

Forgetting self in Majesty on High, 

Has missed the music of the mighty spheres, 
If he hath not praise to proffer all his years. 

He who hath rocked upon old ocean's breast. 
Nor felt an awe steal o'er his inmost soul, 
Yet feigning, braved it to the distant goal. 

Nor gladly leaped from off its foamy crest. 

Has missed the grandeur of its rhythmic swell 
If then he hath no marvelous tale to tell. 

He who hath strained up to the mountain's peak. 
Nor wondering gazed upon that broad expanse, 
Nor dwarfed himself a pigmy in the lands 

Unfolded to his view, with pallid cheek, 

Has missed the one thing needful to his fame 
If he hath not tongue to voice his Maker's name. 

IvE KNVOI. 
He who hath scaled success with meed of opulence, 
Nor shares it with his fellow whilst he lives, 



THE DEATH OF MAMMON. 37 

Is base and mean. Nor feels that to give 
Is blessed, and knowing this, goes feigning hence, 
Has missed the purpose of his high estate, 
And will plead for mercy — but Too Late. 



GREKEBACKS ? YES ! 

" Congress shall have power to declare war, . . . to coin 
money, ... to regulate the value thereof. " — The Consti- 
tution. 

"To Coin- -to make money; to originate; to fabricate; to 
coin as a word." — Worcester. 

" Money was tendered to the government by Wall street 
banks ' at from 24 to 36 per cent interest.' " — Appleton's Cyclo- 
pedia for 1 86 1, page 296. 

" I affirm it is my conviction that class laws, placing capital 
above labor, are more dangerous to the republic at this hour 
than was chattel slavery in the days of its haughtiest suprem- 
acy. ' ' — L iyicoln 's letter to Ellis. 

"O, w^ar, thou fury of the past ! 
How ruthless thy conception cast 
Into the mould of greed and hate 
To wreck the proudest ' Ship of State ' 
That ever sailed upon the sea 

Of commerce, peace, and liberty 

History shall write thy cursed obliquity. 
Thou monarchized, subsidized, bonded iniquity." 
— From the poem Once a Year. — G. P. M. 



The leaders to that fearful strife. 
For sordid gain are leaders still, 



38 THE LIGHT OF PERSIA ; OR 

Who wield the whip that smites the life 
In Freedom's name from vale and hill. 

That life so vital to our state-:— 

Baptized in patriotic fire, 
Whose zeal made soldiers truly great, 

Who scorn the party lash and hire. 

That life is choked, and almost spent, 
From leadership of cravens greed, 

Who dared to ask the " rate per cent" 
In answer to our nation's need. 

Thirty-six per cent, by some was asked — 
I need not name the craven horde — 

I leave to you the memory task 
For history verifies my word. 

They, the leaders, self-anointed, 
Questioned long our vested right, 

By the Constitution appointed, 
''To coin money in its might." 

But we got it, soldiers got it. 

Sent it to their hungry wives. 
Who paid their debts and learned to love it 

As they loved their very lives. 

It was money, pure and simple. 

Honest money, green at that. 
It climbed with gold and stormed the temple 

Of the world in its fiat ! 



THE DEATH OF MAMMON. 39 

Balked and beaten the)'- the leaders, 

Strong united, (not over fond,) 
But more to be feared than all seceders 

Were they who framed the government bond. 

Bonds, they said, would save our credit, 

Bonds are made of paper, too. 
Same as Greenbacks, but with debits, 

Added to their gilt-edged hue. 

Greenbacks, they said, were ** irredeemable" — 

What a lie their false tongues told ! 
And to me they are amendable ; — 

I preferred them to their gold ! 

I redeemed them — you redeemed them ; 

They redeemed themselves a million fold ; 
By every hand they found redemption, — 

We preferred them to their gold ! 

Aye, the3^ were a mighty power — 

A mighty leveler in the land — 
They nerved the arm with which to shower 

Shot and shell with stronger hand. 

They fought the battles of our nation. 

Crippled though as soon as made, 
By gross "exceptions," strange negation, 

An apologetic coward's aid. 

I need not recite the whole base story 

Of their withdrawal in redemption's name, 



40 THE LIGHT OF PERSIA ; OR 

Nor how they issued bonds to worry 
And tax all labor in ludicrous shame. 

I merely mention some "bugaboos" 

That cracked at the end of the party lash, 

That did with coward fear infuse 

The rank and file of the "public hash." 

Who shouted first, and last, and ever 

For " National credit" and " National banks," 

" Repudiation " — and that "Hard money measure," 
" Intrinsic values" and " Resumption cranks." 

" For overproduction" — under consumption — 
" Honest money" — the creature of law 

Which could be twisted without compunction 
To mean anything which the leaders saw 

Would hasten this creature into the fire 

That bonds might rise from the great ash heap 

Which melted away, and w^as lost in the mire. 

Whilst the bonds remained with their interest deep. 

He is her friend whoever dares 

Face her enemies with the truth. 
With which to overthrow the snares 

Laid to entrap her growing youth. 

He is her enemy — self-evident, 

Whoever partisan may be 
That lets his part}^ twist his bent 

For truth and its contiguity. 



THE DEATH OF MAMMON. 4 1 

It is the leaders I charge to day 

Whoever led where wrong was wrought, 

And not the rank and file, who pay 
For every wrong, however bought. 

To every candid man of sense 

Contrasting the present with the past, 
I make with him no vain pretense, 

But give an axiom that will last. 

Let riches be not long despised, 

For it may come to every door, 
Nor by its blandishments be surprised — 

It is a unit against the poor. 

And when you see it strong arrayed 

On one side of a public cause 
Then break with it, and be afraid 

lyCSt mischief come upon our laws. 

The millionaires are leaders still ! 

They led in piling bonds so high — 
They are clipping coupons with a will 

And ask to be " Protected" — why ? 

" Because they are the leaders" — " leaders old" ! 

They lead in reaping but they never sow ; 
They fix the price on all that's sold, 

" And corn and wheat are always low." 

The inherent right is to " sell to them," 
" A home market is just what we want" — 



42 I'HH light of PERSIA ; OR 

The market price you must ever stem 
No matter the price, however gaunt. 

That ye are dupes self-evident ! 

Witness the deeds of a " mutinous crew' ' 
Who offered insult to a President — 

The Commander-in-Chief of "The boys in blue.' 



AIvMOST A TRAGEDY. 

" And shall I never have a home ? 

O say ! my fellows, say ! 
Is there no room for such as me 

In all America ?" — Ingham. 

'* Ah no ! not as now forever shall the eyes of Hope be dimmed 
For Freedom's fruitless endeavor, and Labor despised and un- 

hymned, 
For, lo ! even now a glimmer athwart the heavens above ! 
And hate and fear grow dimmer in the crescent light of love." 

—James M. Pryse. 

"Government is devised for the security of rights. The 
rights of man are liberty and an equal participation in the com- 
monage of Nature." — Shelly. 

** I am sure there would be no need of laws to provide for 
distress if there were no laws to produce it. " — Walker^ 

"When all mankind were at war, every man who could carry 
his club was worth his food. Peace has reduced this class to 
starvation. ' ' — Unity > 



I walk by homes of laughter, of music jest and 

mirth, — 
But since the war I've had no home, there's none for 

me on earth — 



THE DEATH OE MAMMON. 43 

My mother died, and father soon by her dear side was 

laid; 
So now they have a glorious home 'neath heaven's 

umbrageous shade: 
They earned it, too, in honest toil which never wrong 

has known, — 
But when I came to live with them they then pos- 
sessed a home 
Built by themselves, a dear old home, with maple 

trees around. 
And oft, a boy in very glee, I've rolled upon the 

ground 
And watched the swallows flitting by in twittering 

ecstacy, 
And well I marked their sportiveness; it seemed to 

flatter me. 
Oh! how I miss those dear dead days of peace and 

quiet joy, 
And oh! the longings that I feel to be once more a 

boy,— 
My elder brothers went to war to free the chattel 

slave; 
And soon my father joined them — at sixty — he was 

brave ! 
I was a lad of eight years then — just old enough to 

share 
The agony of dire suspense which filled our home 

with care. 
No money came except I earned by driving cows and 

chores 
That early morn and eventide I did about the stores. 



44 'THE LIGHT OF PERSIA ; OR 

A neighbor kind, who had a grove of beech and maple 

trees, 
Gave me permission to " pick up sticks:" thereby we 

did not freeze; 
But oh ! the toil of lugging wood vSo far upon my 

arms; 
E'en most I feel them aching now, and see a war's 

alarms. 
I could not earn enough for all, no matter how I 

worked. 
And sometimes, 3^es, I know sometimes I cursed the 

war and shirked. 
Dear mother sewed, and sisters too, but hungry oft 

were we; 
And Sarah went away to live ' ' wherever it might be. ' ' 
Never before had one of us worked for a single soul, 
Save those we loved about the home, and the larder 

was plentiful. 
She did not tell a single soul her intentions thus to 

roam, 
But bravely sought for work afar, that she might 

help our home. 
O, did she know the agony of those she left behind? 
Aye ! that she did, and speedily sent a message true 

and kind — 
" I've found a place," the letter ran, " some eighteen 

miles away," 
**To sew for months; they seem so glad to have me 

here to stay." 
She sent a greenback home to us, a new two-dollar 

bill; 



THE DEATH OF MAMMON. 45 

The first that we had ever seen, and the tears would 

come and fill 
Our eyes to o'erflowing so the bill was soon stained 

o'er 
With spots, when we were kissing it — we all did thrice 

or more. 
That bill — a "God-send" was to us, for I had stubbed 

my toe, 
And we were hungry, and mother was sick, and 

everything seemed to go 
All wrong, as sometime sure it will, till the black- 

hell-of despair 
Was almost come unto our home, and angry words 

were there. 
Those hot words, I recall them now — "I won't and I 

shan't!" I said 
To mother, who wanted me to go to Simpson's for 

bread; 
And I didn't, for just then Emma came from down 

street out of breath. 
And brought the letter from "dear old Sate," v/hich 

saved us all from death; 
For I had resolved, let come what would, I never 

would "Borrow bread," 
And before I'd steal, as I felt I must, we might better 

all be dead! 
And so a plot I laid to slay them all that very night, 
But the letter came and saved my soul from that most 

awful blight. 
This secret I've never told before. I hate to tell it 

now, 



46 THE LIGHT OF PERSIA ; OR 

But boys are desperate as well as men, when hunger 

makes them vow, 
Never to beg, and never to steal, yet never to hungry 

go; 
V They'd rather die like men ! than beg, or steal, from 
friend or foe. 



THE MUSTER— A PROPHECY. 

" Moreover, the profit of the earth is for all." — Bible. 

"The earth hath He given to the children of men." — Bible. 

" The land have I given for a heritage to all people." — Bible. 

" The land shall not be sold forever, for the land is mine, and 
ye are but sojourners with me." — Bible. 

"Woe unto him that useth his neighbor's service without 
wages, and giveth him nought for his work." — Bible. 



The invisible hosts are marching in a cavalcade of 

might — 
Hark ! I hear the clarion music ringing out upon the 

night — 
And the seal of Faith now loosened is beneath their 

awful tread. 
And the portals of the living are thrown open to the 

dead. 
See ! A courier prone advances, swift as lightning in 

its wrath ! 



THE DEATH OF MAMMON. 47 

To muster all the sons of men to victory or to 

death !— 
** Rally ! Rally !" is the tocsin message — welcome that 

he brings ! 
But he stops not ! — yet he stays not ! — on he flies with 

tireless wings ! 
But his voice peals as the thunder surging on some 

rocky shore, 
And they hear it — aye ! they heed it — e'en the sons 

of men can roar ! 
Hark! his trumpet now is sounding — "Gird your 

loins for the fight ! 
For a mighty army cometh to join forces with the 

Right ! 
See them coming ! Rally ! Rally ! from the North- 
land — east and west ! 
And the Southland brings her quota, larger now than 

all the rest ; 
She who is opprest is coming to this carnival of strife, 
She who is a maid or widow, she who is an honest 

wife — 
All are coming ! none are fearing — yet they march 

with bated breath. 
For they know, when all is over, they will be in at the 

death !— 
God, I thank Thee ! it was given me thus to witness 

this array 
Of thy power — in this the hour of our need and slow 

decay — 
Faiths are quickened — pulses beating with that old- 
time ring and fire, 



48 THE LIGHT OF PERSIA ; OR 

When men fought for homes and loved ones, for their 

country and their sires. 
But see ! the courier now returneth — giving out the 

countersign — 
"Down with Usury!" is the watchword, soldiers, 

pass it 'long the line, 
Yet again his his trump is sounding — " Muster every 

man of toil ! 
Fill your ranks without a coward, to do battle for the 

soil ! 
For to every man of courage will an angel ready be 
To nerve his arm to strike a blow for homes and 

Victory !" 

They are with us, they are with us — they are here 
upon the earth ; 

They muster every kingdom to the places of their 
birth ! 

I can see their banners swaying as they tread their 
way among 

The sons of every nation who have groaned beneath a 
wrong ; 

I can see the burnished armor gleaming 'thwart the 
lightning's flare ; 

I can read those bold inscriptions of past ages in the 
glare ; 

As they bring them back to witness here the wrongs of 
long ago, 

And to blend them with the scenes they find degrad- 
ing here below ; 

Ah ! they tell of pomp and power wrung from igno- 
rance and youth. 



THE DEATH OF MAMMON. 49 

Wrung from every timid creature who had innocence 
and truth ; 

Wrung in Taxes, Tithes and Livings, wrung in monu- 
ments to the past, 

By a horde of robber barrons who insinuated Caste, 

See ! the toilers of past ages are in motion — drawing 
nigh. 

They lead the van in marching — making way for Des- 
tiny ! 

I can hear the ring of metal whose keen edge is lost to 
art, 

Fashioned into deadly weapons that can pierce the rob- 
ber heart, — 

Hark ! a mighty voice is sounding — wave on wave it 
nearer rolls, 

Hush ! it is the voice of Justice — having dominion over 
souls, — 

List ye ! what that voice is saying — " Gird your loins 
for the fight ! 

' ' Death to traitors, robbers, harlots — death to every- 
thing — save Right !" 

Tremble ! O ye sons of Mammon ! Tremble ! oh ye 
daughters, weep ! 

Who sell your birthright for an hostage, sell your 
bodies for their keep — 

Hear that low deep-muttered thunder welling up from 
off the sod — 

(Given to mortals for an heritage — by its Creator and 
their God) — 

Aye ! they shall have it — it is written — spoken now, — 
the written word, 



50 THE LIGHT OF PERSIA ; OR 

And the gathered hosts repeat it — all may hear who 

have not heard. 
Lo ! a might}^ army marcheth, wheel on wheel the 

Legions sweep ; 
Gathered from the inner fastness of the limitless and 

deep ; 
Hosts are answering hosts and flanking — right and left 

they press around, 
Here upon God's footstool gathered, to do battle for 

the ground — 
Tremble ! O ye sons of Mammon ! Tremble oh 3'e 

daughters, weep .' 
Evolution now o'ertakes ye ; Revolution is its sweep ! 
Hark ! a mighty voice is sounding — wave on wave it 

nearer rolls — 
Hush ! it is the voice of Justice ! having dominion over 

souls — 
List ye ! what that voice is saying — *'Gird your loins 

for the fight ! 
* 'Death to traitors, robbers, harlots, — Death to every- 
thing — save right !" 
Hark ! the Leader's Voice is sounding — list ye what He 

hath to say, 
He is calling to his children, and they must — they 

shall obey ! 
* * Systems must give place to systems — Lo ! I come but 

not in hate, 
"But to meet out simple justice — the advancement of 

the state ! 
He who will not aid endeavor to fulfillment without 

strife, 



THE DEATH OF MAMMON. 5 1 

Must perforce in simple justice forfeit claims to Mam- 
mon's life ! 
Who has robbed of peace and plenty, robbed his fellow, 

robbed the sod ; 
Who so claims dominion over it yet shall feel the 

wrath of God ! 
Lo ! I come to save my people — they with plodding 

feet, and now 
I am come to raise the lowly — they with careworn 

aged brow, 
They who toil in any vineyard, who have lived by 

toil alone, 
Are my children, blessed children — take the land, it 

is thine own !" 



AMERICA. 



An address to the "American house of lords" 
in behalf of the "commons." 



** A Hundred Men with a Million a Year, • 
A Million Men with a Hundred a Year." 






" This could not be if justice reigned. ' * 



* 
* * 



" The gulf is widening between Dives and Lazarus at a geom- 
etrical ratio, and if this impractical society could possibly run 



52 THE LIGHT OF PERSIA ; OR 

50 years longer, there would be ten men with a hundred million 
a year and twenty million with nothing. But it cannot last half 
that time, for when millions of willing workers are hungry in 
the presence of legally stolen wealth their respect for the law 
evaporates." — Looking Forward. 

' * So distribution should undo excess, 
And each man have enough." — KingLear. 



"Want !" in a land of plenty — 

"Want !" did I hear you say — 
"Want !" in a land of harvests! 

"Want?" in America? — 
Great God ! and is it then true. 

That there is want in our streets to-day? 
Gaunt want and wolfish hunger, 

And cold, in America? 

Want ! in this land of plenty, 

Want ! in America, 
Want ! where rivers of golden grain 

Are freighted far away ? — 
Want ! where mast-fed swine 

Are roaming a thousand hills, 
And mast-fed swine of another kind 

Are discounting moneyed bills ? 

Want ! and the black diamonds sparkle 

In heaps a mountain high ! 
And some, perchance, must freeze 

In the streets, and perish miserably ? 



'The death of mammon. 53 

Want ! where idle treasure 

Is piled a million's fold — 
And is it Wisdom's measure 

This hoarding of silver and gold ? 

Must the living now go hungry, 

When there's plenty wherewith to buy — 
Oh say ! must it be, ye Judges ! 

That from want, some of us must die ? 
Must it be that the weak should go hungry 

And cold, and thinly clad, 
When the bountiful harvests yielded 

Enough to make us all glad ? 

"The property rights are such, 

"And the conditions of mankind so, 
"It seems 'Divinely Right' 

"That some must needy go; 
"For in this struggle for life, 

"The survival of the fittest — stand 
"The Stewards of God's appointing 

"To judge— of — the — case — in — hand. 

"I know this seeme hard, my friend, 

"But there's really no cause of fear; 
"Just now, of course, money is tight; 

" 'T always is at this time of the year; 
"Crops will soon move along; 

"The farmers are much to blame; 
"They've been holding wheat for a raise, 

But they're mistaken, all the same." 



54 I'HE LIGHT OF PERSIA ; OR 

Who gave you the power, ye Judges, 

Of want and plenty ? I' me told 
By some, who are hungry and freezing, 

By some others who handle the gold. 
Who gave them the power, ye Tyrants, 

To say that by gold alone 
Or silver, perchance; bi-metalism; 

Shall be the measure of service done. 

Who gave ye the land and the harvests 

Of cattle, of grain and of swine; 
Who gave ye the land with its metal bright. 

And the coal in the deep, dark mine: 
Oho gave ye the power, ye Judges, 

To stamp on the metal bright; 
*'One dollar;" "In God we trust;" 

Does Power make everything right ? 

Is Power the measure of Labor, 

Wrapped up in a small gold piece ? 
Then am I the greater power; 

I can read it and melt it like grease. 
Who gave ye the power, ye Judges ! 

To measure my labor and skill 
With coins that lie ! so miserably ; 

Do they do the "Master's will ?" 

"Governments derive their just powers 
From the consent of the governed" — say 

Is that the reason some starve. 

In the streets, or freeze, in America? 



THE DEATH OF MAMMON. 55 

Ye Devils ! ye Devils ! who rule us, 
Who make of man's life a curse ! 

Who rob sweet innocence of virtue, 

Or debauch them with crimes that are worse ! 

Who make and unmake systems, 

To suit the will of the few ; 
Who one day see danger in nothing, 

The next day prove it untrue; 
Ye Devils ! ye Devils ! who rule us, 

Who again are ruled by a crew. 
Who in turn are ruled by the lust of gold 

And "The Press of a Foreign Jew." 

Do ye think, ye Devils Incarnate, 

Who deed away lands by the mile. 
That the hungry men of America 

Will submit to further guile ? 
Do ye think that when want arises. 

And a vault that's groaning with gold, 
That we will ask your consent to take it 

And pay interest a thousand fold ? 

Do ye think when all is over, 

' 'And the music of praise is dead ; 
' 'And crowns in the dust lie shattered, 

"That might have encircled your head," 
That the aftermath then waving 

Above the sordid few 
Will have any the richer coloring, 

Because of the clodded dew? 



56 



THE LIGHT OF PERSIA ; OR 

If ye do, then keep on freezing, 

And starving the mad to-day ; 
For there will come a glad to-morrow, 

When Mammon wnll slink awaj'. 
It moves along in majesty ; 

It is bearing down your way ; 
Along the "Line of least resistance," 

Right here in America. 



EMBALM IT. 

"Farewell ! a long farewell to all my greatness. " 

— Shakspeare. 

" And then lie did not stop, nor lag, 
But took within his reverent hand 
The starry emblem of our laud. 
And kissed with sacred touch that flag, 
That precious, priceless, tattered rag. " 

— Helen N. Packard. 

"We are taught with our drawing breath that we should love 
America and Americans better than any other land or people 
Ah, yes. If it were not for that cry : " For God and Native land " 
How would despots and plutocrats maintain their sway ?" 

— October Twentieth Century. 

$i.oo. 

Fiance has her lilly, 
And England her rose, 
And everybody knows 
Where the shamrock grows ; 
Scotland has her thistle, 
Flowering on the hill. 
But the American emblem 
Is the one dollar bill ; 

— Denver News. 



THE DEATH OF MAMMON. 57 

Sprinkle with spices and cedar 

And camphorgum, evenly, so; 
Fold it up gently and neatl}^, 

That the stripes may all come in a row. 

White stripes and red stripes alternate ; 

Fold upon fold it must lie, 
Until each jewel that decks it 

Shines evenly through all the sky. 

So fold it away for a season, 

For the stars of its glor}^ are dim ; 
No more does it tell the glad stor}^ 

Nor the glass do we fill to the brim. 

Waves it no longer for free men ! 

It clings to the mast, there, in shame. 
And the breezes that once kissed it with passion ! 

Pass it by in utter disdain. 

Waves it no longer for free men ! 

It clings to the mast when apeak. 
And looks tired and guilty — but maybe. 

If it had a tongue, it would speak. 

It speaks to my heart, though, a language 

Whose muteness is born of the fire 
Of freedom ! for freemen forever ! 

And the appeal doth my courage inspire 

To fold it away for a season. 

For its glory may sometimes return, 



58 THK LIGHT OF PERSIA * OR 

But until that glad day just embalm it, 
That traitors a lesson may learn. 

* * * * 

When I was a boy, I remember, 

How my heart with emotion was thrilled, 

When they brought home Malcom, my brother, 
Who at Malvern Hill was killed. 

The flag of our Union was round him 

And he lay so calm and white 
With a smile, as if Angels had kissed him 

For carrying that flag through the fight. 

He got his death blow when the battle 

Was raging the hottest — it fell 
From the hands of the colorbearer, near him, 

And he caught it up, and since then they tell 

How it ever was seen in the vanguard 

Close up to the enemy, where 
They mowed down his comrades about him, 

But the flag was invincible there ! 

He bore it though wounded and bleeding, 
Till the enemies guns were all still. 

Then he planted it firmly and kissed it, 
And lay down and died on the hill. 

His comrades all speak of him kindly, 
As a brave man and gentle and true ; 



THE DEATH OK MAMMON. 59 

But he's gone with, earth's glory around him, 
Embalmed in the Red, White and Blue ! 

* * * * 

But no more does it wave over free men ! 

Though it set the black bondmen free (?) 
For the " whites " and the "blacks " are bonded 

To a fell-money-curst Oligarchy ! 

So fold up the flag for a season : 

The days of its glory are fled ; 
It is now with the Heroe's departed, 

And its wrong to mock even the dead. 

So sprinkle with spices and cedar, 

And camphorgum, evenly, now 
Embalm it and pledge yourselves solemnly — 

By the most sacred and awful vow : 

' ' By the gods of Reason and Justice ! 

By the cramps of Hell and its blight. 
The earth shall be deluged in blood, 

But that Right shall rule over Might ! 

* * That the flag we embalm for a season 
Shall exultingly wave from on high ! 

A beacon to earth's weary mortals. 
And no more be a jest and a lie ! 

That again it shall float over free men ; 
Stripe upon stripe it shall wave — 



6o THE LIGHT OF PERSIA ; OR 

An emblem of glorious achievement — 

O'er the homes of the free and the brave ! 

Then rally ! The peaceful solution 

Must be tried and fearfully prest, 
Till we fail in our efforts to rid us 

Of this trust-given reign — then the West 

An army of brave men must gather, 
That shall sweep in its maddened glee, 

All "trusts" and those Hellish land-grabbers 
Of ' ' Protection ' ' out into the sea ! 

So cover it deftly with canvas, 

Hide the " Blue Jack " from my sight, 

It's " forty two stars " a misnomer, 

There's no Union if " Protection " be right ! 

Aye ! cover it deftly with canvas, 

Cement it the mumified ! Now 
'Tis embalmed. Renew your pledge solemnly 

And carry out your most awful vow. 



THE TREE OF STATE. 

"The people are the roots of the State; if the roots are 
flourishing the State will endure." — Chinese Blaxini. 

'* The relations of structure are actually such, that, by the 
help of a central regulative system, each organ is supplied 
witli blood in proportion to the work it does." — Herbert 
Spencer. 



THF DEATH OF MAMMON. 6l 



"Is not a dollar a day enough to buj- bread? Water costs 
nothing, and a man who cannot live on bread and water is not 
fit to live."—//. IV. Beecher. 

"The time is near when they (the banks) will feel them- 
selves compelled to act strongly ; meanwhile a very good thing 
has been done ; the machinery is now furnished, by which, in 
any emergency, the financial corporations of the east can act 
together at a single days notice with such power that no con- 
gress can overcome or resist their decision." — The New York 
Tribune. 



' ' The roots of the State" — are they flourishing ? 

Does each fiber receive its just share 
Of that sapient food, which is nourishing, 

To keep them from hunger and care ? 

" The roots of the State" — are they flourishing ? 

If so, then the " State will endure," 
For the blood that flows free is all searching ! 

And each trivial ailment will cure. 

But the '* roots of the State" — are they flourishing ? 

Does each ligament receive a supply 
Of that life-giving tide so encouraging 

That each fibre of State cannot die ? — 

"The roots of the state"— What are they ? 

Are they scions, or grafts of ' ' The tree 
Of State" we all (?) speak of so boastfully 

We call it : '* The home of the free" ? 

*' ' The roots of the State' are its people." 
To be healthy, each scion should be 



62 THE LIGHT OF PERSIA; OR 

Well housed, well fed and be equal 
In the sight of all state equity. 

"The roots of the State" — are they healthy ; 

Does the soil cling close to each root ; 
Does each fiber grow strong, and abundantly 

Able to support a new shoot ? 

Is the State we boast of, so vauntingly, 

Prepared to affirm that the pay 
Each growth receives, and that, tauntingly, 

Is enough at " a dollar a day ?" 

That life-giving tide in all nature 

Animate, or inanimate as well, 
Be it sap, or the blood of a creature, 

Or the State circulation, must tell 

On the strength of the Tree and its branches. 
For its roots will wither and die ; 

If an ax be sunk deep in its haunches, 
And its life tide be sapped until dry. 

The National Banks are the axes 

Sunk deep in our proud Tree of State ! 

Suborning all law, which, relaxes 

In relieving the " cares of the great." 

Discrimination, with its vulgar sequences. 
Have debauched the life of the Tree, 

Until Justice is blind and enhances 
The work of all mean deviltry ! 



THE DEATH OF MAMMON. 63 

Great God ! What a sta^-e are we in ! 

The poor have no show with the rich : 
They have not the wherewith to begin 

A suit to recover, the which 

The}^ have toiled for — and lo, the reward, 
And to get it — Ah ! that is the rub, — 

They are given a piece of pasteboard 
Payable ten 3^ears hence — but, in blood ! 

Can we expect a healthy State-tree, 

Or a man to be strong in the State 
When the blood of his own liberty 

Flows flush through these Entrails of hate ? 

Is it wisdom to longer entail 

These leeches upon our fair State 
Till a premium is put upon " gall," 

That is flushed with the jaundice of hate ? 

*' For the rich hate the poor" — and in turn 
Are hated with the blight of a curse ! — 

But the rich can — afford — slow — to — burn, 
So long as they have not to disburse. 

And " the banks can act strongly," they say, 

" With but a day's notice ahead ;" 
They can bring about worse ' ' anarchy' ' 

Than when ' ' Justice' ' with murder was fed ! 

They have preached " Gatlin guns for the mob !" 
Who in turn have recourse to the curse ; 



64 THE LIGHT OF PERSIA ; OR 

The}^ hurl in the deadly bomb, 

And I know not which side is the worse. 

In the light of time's — search — evidence, 
One cause was to blame, it, the " purse !" 

What language of mine can evince 
My contempt for it and the curse 

It wrought to that fair, hallowed Tree, 
Around which my heart-strings entwine ; 

'Till now, I no longer can see 

But that Anarchistic-Justice combine. 

Poor thief ! it "robbed Peter to pay Paul," 
And now the ' ' black devils from Hell' ' 

Have full sway in the courts, one and all, 
And I mark me, the Tree is not well ! 

Avarice — the grub — is at its roots 
They are into another " combine !" 

The disease has seized all its shoots 

But they drink but the froth of the wine. 

Yes, the Tree is unwell, this I know — 
'Tis decidedh^ weak, but, I am loath — 

The remedy to heal startles so ; 

It would shake off this incubus growth. 

But I fear, with a fear born of love ; 

Which no man shall dare under rate, 
That it will take millions of tears to remove 

This Octopus leech from the State ! 



THE DEATH OF MAMMON. 65 

Yes ! I fear, I repeat, with a love 

For my fellows both humble and great. 

It will take thousands of lives to remove 
This grub from our fair Tree of State ! 



THE GROOMING OF THE GIANT. 

" The most wealthy must govern in every state, and will, re- 
gardless of any attempt to deprive them of that right." — 
Richmond ( Va.) Whig. 

' ' We need a strong central government ; the wealth of the 
country has to bear the burdens of government (?) and shall 
control it." — Senator Shat on. 

" It is the business of governments to "protect" the interests 
of business men and they in turn will look out for the poor." — 
President Garjield. 

"The only way we can control the working man is to make 
him eat up to-day what he earns to-morrow." — Tom Scott. 

"Hand Grenades should be thrown among those who are 
striking to obtain higher wages, as, by such treatment they 
would be taught a lesson, and other strikers would take warn- 
ing by their fate." — Chicago Times. 



It is coming ! It is coming ! To ! I warn you to be 

ready ! 
Place your chemicals in fusion, let the bulbs receive 

the air ; 
For the hope of all the ages is concentered in this 

struggle. 
And you must not waste a moment, not e'en to make 

a comment ; 



66 THE LIGHT OF PERSIA ; OR 

But be read}^ with the weapons Science kindl}^ has 
provided 

For this very undertaking though it end in death to 
you — 

Though it end in black death freezing some-one-else 
instead of you — 

The}^ have built upon your loyalty a fabric of base 
cruelty, 

And now you'll shake it off and stand, or fall with 
honor true ; 

True to self and true to duty, true to brotherhood and 
beauty ; 

True as God Himself intended you should be to all 
the race 

Else be branded as a traitor — a base and craven traitor ! 

And be driven hence like cattle to the shambles in 
disgrace ! 

I can see your lips draw firmer and your countenance 
grow sterner ; 

As I tell-3^ou-off in language that is plain and under- 
stood, — 

You have mixed a life of sorrow from necessity of labor 

And 3^ou've borne it long in secret and are longing to 
be free ! 

Long to shake-off everj^ fetter which enchains 3-our 
liberty ; 

lyong to recognize your manhood or go hence eternally ! — 

The bonds of superstition which for centuries en- 
slaved you ; 

Were broken in transferring them to bonds of gov- 
ernment, 



THE DEATH OF MAMMON. 67 

But the change, though somewhat better, is insulting 

your intelligence ; 
And that, too, is doomed to scatter 'neath the wrath 

of your contempt. 
Yes ! the animal that's in you cries aloud for readjust- 
ment ; 
Of conditions all unnatural and you've made a solemn 

vow. 
That when the time was fulling it would find you keen 

and ready ; 
To strike a blow for vict'ry and strike home ! or failing, 

die !— 
'Tis a battle of the giants ! This you know and long 

have measured 
The strength of your opponent all entrenched behind 

the law ; 
But the ' ' Court of Last Resort' ' you rely upon for 

judgment, 
So you've trained your mind accordingly and will not 

now turn back. 
Not though grim-death this moment stared you in the 

face and giggled ! 
Would 3^ou turn aback to struggle in the old degrad- 
ing way ; 
But would set your teeth the firmer, and grind them 

too and murmur 
"Come death," "Come sweet oblivion," or "Come 

Victory and life ! ! !" 
No coward j^ou, nor craven, nor a sluggard, nor a villian ; 
But you've been an honest citizen and you could not 

"get ahead;" 



68 THE LIGHT OF PERSIA ; OR 

In the struggle for a living, — just barely for a living 

You have grown old and grizzled and have horns in 
neither palm — 

But they'll grip the ax the tighter, aye ! and grasp 
the bomb the closer, 

And the arm that's trained to labor will prove your 
staunchest friend ; 

For although it prove quite sanguine — 'twill be a san- 
guinary struggle, 

So 3'ou fear not the result, for which, you are ready 
now to die. 

You will prove an honest foeman — no contemptible 
assassin ; 

You will give 5^our foe a warning like the ' ' Rattler 
ere he strike," 

And the " Gatlin's" they turn on you — you will 
bomb them into silence, 

Then form an armistice with them, till they strike 
again at you ; 

Whereupon you'll end the struggle by entire anni- 
hilation 

Of your enem}' , the liar, the craven and the cur ! — 

Thus will labor gain a Victory over Capital — thus only 

Will the elements composing each be ' ' Harmonized' ' 
for good ; — 

It will be a lasting lesson which will hasten the mil- 
lenium. 

For the good of all the ages ever came up through 
some blood : 

Thus through cooperation will advance man's brother- 
hood ; 



THE DEATH OF MAMMON. 69 

Thus the dream of all the ages will advance the per- 
fect day, 

And "The Stage-coach," with its "Drivers,"" will 
forever roll away. 



THE UGHT OF PERSIA. 

" Zeal and duty are not slow, 

But ou occasions forelock watchful wait." 

—Milton. 

" Sired of ye Sun and mist, 

Foal'd in ye angle of might ! 
Caught in descent, how ye hissed 

Ye liquified devil of Light ! " 

— abler. 

" Think you that a drop of water, which to the vulgar eye is 
but a drop of water, loses everything in the eye of the physicist, 
who knows that its elements are held together by a force, 
which if sudddenly liberated, would produce a flash of light- 
ning ?' ' — Herbert Spencer. 

It can be stored in a small wand, which rests in the palm and, 
when skillfully wielded, can rend rocks, remove any natural 
obstacles, scatter the strongest fortress and make the weak a 
perfect match for any combination of number, skill and dis- 
cipline. " — The Coming Race : By Bulwer. 

I come ! I come ! — ye have called me long : 

I come o'er the mountains with Light and song I 

— Mrs. Heinans. 



Hail ! all hail ! Thou light appointed — Hail thy com- 
ing at this hour ; 

Hail thy quickening conservation to dethrone the 
money power. 



70 THE LIGHT OF PERSIA ; OR 

We thy servants long have waited, long have strug- 
gled, long endured ; 

But the knowledge of thy Presence much our pa- 
tience has inured. 

Wrapped in mystery, song and legend, thou hast 
tardy been, — but say ! 

Now we fully have possession — Science bids Thee 
ever stay ! — 

And cans' t thou now our animation full suspend till 
time is nought ; 

And by that mystery so potent has't thou a quick- 
ening antidote ? ? 

If thou hast, the test on yonder flock of sheep may'st 
fully try; 

For if thou fail'st to reawaken, they are but sheep ! 
as such, may die. 

Quick the mysterious power hovered o'er the flock 
and then it fell; 

And had that flock been Bankers, Lawyers, they had 
been ' ' pleading' ' now in hell ! 

For, to attest the strength of vapors, thus exhaled 
from small glass bomb; 

Investigation was suspended, with proof enough to 
strike one dumb ! 

And so that flock of sheep are standing staring into 
empty space; 

Some whose bleating breaths were frozen, others 
stopped in gambols chase; 

Others still with lambkins nursing, others yet with 
grazing mouths; 



THE DEATH OF MAMMON. 71 

To the sward their heads are drooping, others still 

their nostrils souse. 
Ah! Thou Glorious "Light of Persia," thou art 

here, art come to stay ! 
Yes ! thou'rt with us to be useful, and to claim the 

"Right of way !" 
Heretofore the railroads claimed it, hurtling death on 

either hand; 
And by functions usurpations stole the public's 

wealth of land : 
Lied and robbed, subborned and plundered, denying 

usucaption's right, 
Despoiled the farm and then the farmer scourged his 

home as with a blight. 
Then with fear of revolution, craven fear of steaming 

blood; 
Allied to " Courts of prostitution" (builded for the 

people's good) (?). 
And so appealed to " Patriotism ;" that wrecker of all 

moral law; 
(That bane to homes; a nation's curse; that monster 

with a cat-like paw !) 
To yet oppress and grind the "public" to see how 

much it could endure 
Till marriage even was denied to some who waited 

years and more. 
And when the discontented murmur swelled aloud 

and strikes were !* on ;" 
They struck men down-with-anarchy and threatened 

with a Gatlin-gun. 



72 THE LIGHT OF PERSIA ; OR 

The ' ' blood ' ' possessed of so much ' * horror ' ' was 

not the people's, their concern 
Was for themselves; they quaked and trembled, for 

themselves their morals burned. 
But now we'll force the revolution, no harm in one 

whose bloodless might, 
Sweeps the land with noiseless power, sweeps it with 

the power of Light ! 
Who can tell the brave * ' Light-bearer "as he treads 

the busy street, 
Who but they can tell the hour when the allied forces 

meet — 
At noon, upon a given day the pampered works of all 

the world. 
Will silent be, as noiselessly the planet in its course 

is whirled; 
No questions will be asked, "for why," from dread of 

the impending doom; 
The earth will quiet be as erst, upon that day from out 

the gloom 
It rolled into the quickening light, when day was 

ushered into night. 
Men will be mute and quit their work and hasten 

each upon his way; "^ 

He has a duty to perform — a duty? Yes! upon that 

da}^ 
He knows his task yet dreads it not, for he is master 

of his fate. 
His only fear, if such it be, is, that he may not be too 

late: 



THE DEATH OF MAMMON. 73 

For he has pledged his right to life if thus he fail to 

do his part, 
And the forfeit will exactly be from every traitor's 

craven heart. 
His part is simple. In his right hand he holds a 

globe of "Instant Light," 
So small is it, that his good palm conceals it from his 

fellow's sight. 
A hundred thousand such as he, could withstand the 

armies of the earth, 
He knows it, too, and fearlessly joins the ranks to aid 

the birth 
Of a new regime, for "fallen man." The Christ of 

history foretold. 
When he would come, and willingly, undo the misery 

of gold. 
He came but no one saw Him come; God moves in a 

mysterious form, 
"He plants his footsteps on the sea and rides apon the 

storm," 
"How resist this revolution?" Ah! die you hard 

thou guilty wretch! 
Mammon takes no note of Science unless it will itself 

enrich. 
"How arrest the revolution?" will be heard on ever}'- 

hand that day; 
Mammon dies; but dies from hunger; because it will 

no longer pay: 
Yes! it dies. But in its throes 'twill call upon its 

henchmen brave (?) 



74 I'HE LIGHT OF PERSIA ; OR 

Who will be willing for a shilling yet its guilty life to 

save ; 
Henchmen who are blind to reason, blinded with 

obsequious gain, 
So in Godless doubt and treason they must pay for it 

in pain. 
Yea, they will face the unknown power — hireling 

troops of Mammon's gold, 
And they too must agony suffer, suffer from the biting 

cold; 
That sweeps like magic o'er their forces, creeps in ter- 
rorizing blight, 
As cold their veins, benumbed to freezing, from the 

contact of the Light ! 
"How resist the revolution?" "Suspects" may go 

to jail in peace ; 
Knowing well at any moment they can ' ' treat' ' for 

their release ! — 
The court-room's thronged with zealous faces — the 

prisoners — so — behind the bar ; 
The judge his sentence has delivered, — Presto ! the 

Light is there ! 
The judge, the jury and spectators have met "suspen- 
sion of the breath !" 
A capsule in the prisoner's mouth frees him from the 

frost of death ; 
And forth he walks a conqueror triumphant o'er a 

natural cause, 
That bids defiance to the courts and all their base, 

inhuman laws. 
****** 



THE DEATH OF MAMMON. 75 

But the pot ! the pot ! the horrid stink pot ! the stink 

pot of Egypt old ! 
In mercy is sent to these slayers uf men who ,knew 

but the mercy of gold. 
With gaspings and sneezings the antidote works, the 

crowd revives from the spell, 
The lyight of Persia subjected them to, but they sigh 

for a continuance of hell ! 
And in their mad scramble for a breath of fresh air 

they mangle each other in strife, 
And some perchances perish who never can tell the 

test of the pot over life. 
Will the judge, and the jury, and the bloodthirsty 

crew who clamored for the death of "suspect," 
Be content with the lesson the}^ scrambled to get and 

prove to the law derelict? 
Will they see, will they learn, that the laws of the 

courts are null except but for good ; 
That the " court of resort" invested in man is a gift 

to the whole brotherhood ? 
Will thej^ see, will they learn, that man's intellect col- 
lectively based upon right. 
Will never submit to a rule that is mean and con- 
temptible in their their sight ? 
Till they do, the glad Eight of Persia shall shine to 

confuse and confound every law. 
That is not based on justice and true equity to which 

the whole people may bow. 
Then hail ! all hail ! thou secret of old ! thou limpid 

quintessence of Eight ! 



76 THE LIGHT OF PERSIA ; OR 

Thou friend of the masses most potent for good though 

death frigid lurks in thy might, — 
Do they think to enslave Thee, or thy antidotes learn, 

do they think Thou too art for sale ? 
Can they buy the whole earth with a portion of it, can 

they buy all the right of entail ? 
Do they know that the Bearers of Light only know 

their kind in the craft strict appointed ? 
Do they know that the stink-pot bearers don't know 

by whom they themselves were anointed ? — 
Do they think there's a loophole for Pinkerton men, 

though they number the leaves of the trees ? 
Well, there is, but that "loop" is connected with 

death ! There's no antidote for any of these ! 
Then Hail ! all hail ! Thou Transpicuous Light ! 

Thou essence of Permanent Good ! 
We welcome thy power, acknowledge Th}^ Right to 

Rule over man's brotherhood. 



THE ANSWER. 

" How is it. . . . through all these years you 
Have remembered me." — IMallock. 

"Is it possible that I am remembered upon that brief, but 
joyous occasion ?" — Private Letter. 

"We met, 'twas in a crowd. I thought that he would shun 
me. " — Old Song. 

What is love ! It is something that I feel, that moves me, 
that gives me joy, that tends to keep me pure and good. It is 
something that I experience toward this person and not that. I 



THE DEATH OF MAMMON. 77 

love my wife not because she is beautiful or homely, or bright 
or dull, or tall or short ; and I love my friend not because he is 
this, that or the other. In both cases it is because there is some- 
thing in my wife and my friend that awakens my love. ' But I 
cannot explain my love to you. I can only say : ' 'Were you ever 
in love? Then you kuow what love \s:'—Hugh O. Pentecost. 

"I hold he is best learned and most wise : _ 
Who best and most can love and sympathize. " 

— From the poem " Wisdom..''^ 



The following stanzas appeared in The Cur- 
rent,M2iy 29tli, 1886 : 

We question not in spring-time 

The budding of the trees, 
Nor warbhng of the songsters 

Their varied melodies. 

We question not the sunshine— 

We question not the rain — 
We question not the flight of time, 

Its joyousness or pain. 

We question not the river 

Which flows on to the sea — 
But accept each from the Giver 

Of boundless charity ! 

Then question not that fullness 

My friendship has for thee ; 
' Tis mystery full as infinite ; 

As Infinite mystery. 



78 THE LIGHT OF PERSIA ; OR 

We met not, then, as strangers ; 
Met we not then as friends? 
\ Mysterious mystery lingers — 
Affinities have not ends ! 

And like all else in nature, 

We take a royal part. 
There's soul in every creature, 

Who has a loyal heart. 



THE APPEAL. 

My friend — come now, and succor me — 

For, I have "err'd and gone astray — " (?) 
But, 'tis on the side of humanity, 

And so have not gone far away: 
But, lest man's proneness to condemn; 

Should malice bear and vengeful spite — 
Thy Poet heart will not contemn, 

For thy sake, too, I make this fight. 
Come, speak! and vindicate thy friend! 

The fight he makes must not now, cease — 
Come bear him out — Thy message send 

Throughout the earth, nor speak of peace 
Until the last Mammon's race. 

Have met the Master face to face! 



AGITATE 1 



THE DEATH OF MAMMON. 79 

TRUE MEN. 

God give us men ! A time like this demands 

Strong minds, great hearts, true faith and ready hands, 

Men whom the hist of office does not kill, 

Men whom the spoils of office cannot buy, 

Men who possess opinions and a will ; 

Men who have honor, and will not lie ; 

Men who stand before a demagogue 

And damn his treacherous flattery without winking ! 

Tall men, sun-crowned, who live above the fog 

In public duty and in private thinking ; 

For while the rabble, with their thumb-worn creeds, 

Their large professions and their little deeds. 

Mingle in selfish strife, lo ! Freedom weeps. 

Wrong rules the land, and waiting Justice sleeps ! 



WHY IS THIS ? 

When the land is full of workers, 

Busy hands and active brains. 
When the craftsman and the thinkers 

Feel about them binding chains ; 
When the laborer is cheated 

Of the work his hands have wrought, 
And the thinker, vain of logic. 

Sees that reason comes to naught ; 
When the forces men have harnessed 

And have trained to do their will. 
Ought to leave no homeless people 



8o THE LIGHT OF PERSIA ; OR 

And no hungry mouths to fill, 
Have but proved themselves the servants 

Of the shrewd and selfish few, 
And the many have but little 

For the work they find to do ; 
When the labor of a million 

Goes to swell the gains of one. 
As the serfs ef ancient Egypt 

Starved beneath the burning sun ; 
When the schemer and the sharper 

Hold the wealth and rule the land, 
Using up the thinker's brain force, 

Mortgaging the craftsman's hand ; 
When the many shear the sheep 

And the few secure the wool, 
And the gallows claims its victims. 

And your costly jails are full ; — 
Then the men who dreamed of progress 

And had hopes of peace and bliss, 
While they weep and wonder vainly, 

Ask each other ; "Why is this ?" 
Then he thinks, while confessing 

That his vision yet is dim, 
Sa}', that one thing, very clearly, 

Is apparent unto him, 
That the people, blind, or heedless, 

Place themselves beneath the rule, 
Either of the fiendish knave, or 

Worse, perhaps, the sodden fool." 



AGITATE ! 



THE DEATH OF MAMMON. 8 1 



POVERTY. 

"I come ! I Come ! — Ye have called me long ; 
I come o'er the mountaius with Ivight and SoLfg !" 

— Mrs. Henians. 

1 come ! I come ! I must no longer stay 

From duties keen reproach at lingering here ; 

Else rust shall gnaw my vitals all away — 
Yes ! go announce — I shall ere night appear !'' 

— Ivan S, 



There is a sullen artificial sea 

With breakers lurking near each murky wave, 

Fix'd there by the mean avaricious knave 

Whose coral home, call'd "The Land of the Free," 

Is made of shipwreck'd mortal's misery. 

The drowning wretch he seeketh not to save, 

For soon the sufferer becomes a slave 

To serve him in "The Land of Liberty." 

The marines are the despised poor, 

Whose loved one's lives to them are just as dear 

As the belov'd in coral homes secure. 

This free man's bondage is the most severe. 

Knaves with white liver say their blood is bluer. 

Then eat his bread, and thank him with a sneer. 



AGITATE ! 



82 THE LIGHT OF PERSIA ; OR 

THE TOCSIN. 

Signals of storm o'er the lakes and the land; 

Flashing of steel and flashes of brand; 
Ringing of helmets and grinding of knife; • 
Gaunt labor calling his children to strife ! 
Form! Form! Workingmen, form! 
Ready! get ready, to meet the Storm! 

The tyrants are forging their bay' nets anew: 
Who are they for, if they are not for you? 
You who, impotent, have weakened your chains? 
And hark ! They are driving the rivets again ! 

Thousands of years they have trampled your blood; 
See, it reddens the fanes of their old money god ! 
What is the outcome but honor and shame? 
What your rewards but a rod and a flame ? 

They are building a gallows new lessons to teach ! 
They are hanging your brothers for freedom of speech! 
You are held to your tasks by praetorian gun! 
You are clubbed if you halt and shot down if you run ! 

"Honest," they call you while peaceful you dig; 
Honest! content to live like a pig; 
Honest! your daughters they curse with a stain 
That blisters your lips to give it a name. 

Honest ! your sons their prisons to fill ! 
Honest! your aged their pauper dens kill! 



THE DEATH OF MAMMON. 83 

Honest! your babes to the sinister floods 
Which shelter and fatten their crocodile gods! ^ 

1^0, you! upon the bright breast of the west 
A fortress! A menace, your courage to test! 
Thus your petitions are answered; their jeers 
Are fittting replies to your whines and your tears. 

Our bravest, our truest, our best are in chains. 
Shame to the watery blood in your veins! 
Starvlings of honor and curses of earth! 
Proud of your copper badge-sign of the serf! 

Doff it! Who 'mong ye are treemen, free born; 
Resolve! and the cities in sackcloth shall mourn 
The day ! Let their bastiles go down in the morn 
While the flames of your wrath mock the red of the 
dawn. 

Now form ye by ones, or form ye by twos, 
Squads, or battalions, form as ye. choose- 
One is enough if he'll do what he can. 
The glory of life is the dying for man! 



IN MEMORIAM. 
[Chicago, November nth, 1887.] 

Rare, gentle souls, tuned like a silver bell 

When struck by loving hand or kindly word, 
Yet keen and swift as Azrael's flaming sword 



84 THE LIGHT OF PERSIA ; OR 

When menaced by the legal spawn of hell, 
On whose foul shoulders Satans mantle fell 

When legal might instead of free accord 

Was in the State set up to be adored, 
Whose favors legislators buy and sell. 
Thou didst not humble nor deny the right 

When press and pulpit yelled like dogs accurst, 
But calmly looking in the face of Might, 

Didst bid the dastard crew to do their worst, 
Smiling in sorrow, gentleness and grace 
Upon the superstition of thy race. 



IIvLINOIS. 

When the "Press," — God save the mark — wishes to mould 
"public opinion "it is not very choice either in language or 
sentiment, Here is a sample which appeared on the eve of the 
execution of four of earth's grandest martyrs. 

— The Author. 

" Let the sentence be swift, unerring and unmodified. 
Would it not be better to construct a huge dried beef cutter, 
and taking the least guilty one, go through him by very thin 
slices, applying a little brine between each slice. Let the 
most guilty ones look on, and be put through one by one until 
Parsons has seen Spies put through and his turn comes at last. 
Of course the slicing should be done from feet upward." — 
Chicago Inter-Ocean. 



State ! the proudest of the West, 
Martyr's blood is on thy crest ; 
Thou shovild'st know its value best. 



THE DEATH OF MAMMON. 85 

When thy faithful Eovejoy fell, 

Was not Slavery's dying yell / 

Born beneath the passing bell ? 

And less brave than them are we ? 

No more blood for libert}^ ? 

Pen, Press, Voice, and Men yet free ? 

In this drunken city's bed, 
Thou by coward helots led, 
Strike our trusty watchmen dead. 

Dead, by murd'rous hangman's hand, 
Dead, at princely thieves command, 
W^hilst aghast the people stand. 

Hear the despot's shouts of glee, 

" Firmer stands our thrones for thee ;" 

' * Law — not Justice for the free ! ' ' 

Illinois, thy gory deed 

Shall confront thee in thy need. 

When thy very heart shall bleed. 

When 'neath flames thy city lay. 
Was there one to say thee nay, 
When for mone}^ thou didst pray ? 

Begged' St thou then from door to door, — 
And the lean hands of the poor 
Freely swept thine ashen floor 



86 THE LIGHT OF PERSIA ; OR 

Now, when women, children steep, 
In their tears thy dainty feet, 
Findst thou no mercy in thy keep ? 

Harlot ! thou shall sue again, 
Sue with tears of blood, in vain, 
When shall break yon cloud of flame. 

Hear ! While distant Peoples mourn. 
Reck not thou the hovering storm, 
That shall blight thy treach'rous form. 

Freemen's hands that capped thy brow, 
Freemen's hands assail thee now. 
Freemen's hands shall smite thee low. 



H: 



I^ay our heroes gently down, 
Crowning each with mart5^r's crown, 
Heeding not of curse or frown. 

Not a sigh we waste for them, 
Not a tear their graves to gem, — 
Theirs' a brighter diadem. 

Throned in hearts now brooding woe, 
In each hut that grief can show, 
These — their monarch s — only know. 



THE DEATH OF MAMMON. ^J 

Each hour now's with danger fraught, — 
For these huts and hearts well taught, ' 
Bring all tyrant schemes to naught. 

Taught, though scaffolds, rope and rod 
Fell at law's death-dealing nod — 
Taught Humanity is God I 



TO ONE WHO WAS AFRAID TO SPEAK HIS 
MIND ON A GREAT QUESTION. 

Shame upon thee craven spirit 

Is it manly, just, or brave^ 
If a truth have shown within thee, 

To conceal the light it gave ; 
Captive of the world's opinion — 

Free to speak, but yet a slave ? 

All conviction should be valiant ; 

Tell thy truth, if truth there be ; 
Never seek to stem its current ; 

Thought, like rivers, find the sea ; 
It will fit the widening circle 

Of Eternal Verity. 

Speak thy thought, if thou beleiv'st it, 

lyet it jostle whom it may, 
E'en although the foolish scorn it, 

Or the obstinate gainsay ; 



88 THE LIGHT OF PERSIA ; OR 

Every seed that grows to-morrow 
Lies beneath the sod to-day. 

If our sires, the noble hearted, 
Pioneers of things to come, 

Had like thee, been weak and timid, 
Traitors to themselves and dumb. 

Where would be our present knowledge 
Where the hoped millenium ? 

Where would be triumphant Science, 
Searching with her fearless eyes, 

Through the infinite creation 
For the soul that under lies — 

Soul of beauty, soul of goodness, 
Wisdom of the earth and skies? 

Where would be our great inventions, 
Each from bj^-gone fancies born. 

Issued first in doubt and darkness, 
Launched 'mid apathy and scorn? 

How could noontide ever light us. 
But for the dawning of the morn ? 

Where would be our free opinion. 
Where the right to speak at all. 

If our sires, like thee, mistrustful 
Had been deaf to duties call, 

And concealed the thoughts within them, 
Lying down for fear to fall ? 



THE DEATH OF MAMMON. 89 

Though an honest thought, outspoken, 
Lead thee into chains or death — 

What is life, compared to virtue ? 
Shall thou not survive thy breath ? 

Hark ! the future age invites thee ! 
Listen ! trembler, what it saith ! 

It demands thy thought in justice, 

Debt, not tribute, of the free ; 
Have not ages long departed, 

Groan' d, and toil'd, and bled for thee ? 
If the past have lent thee wisdom. 

Pay it to Futurity. 



OUR MARTYRS. 

Under the cruel tree. 
Planted by tyranny, 
Crown in barbarity, 

Fostered by wrong; 
With stately, soldier pace, 
With simple, manly grace, 
Each hero took his place. 

Steady and strong. 

Wearing their robes of white, 
As saints or martyrs might. 
Calmly, in conscious right, 
Faced they the world. 



90 THE LIGHT OF PERSIA ; OR 

While on each face upturned, 
Sternly their sad eyes burned 
Reproach, for blame unearned. 
Hatred had hurled. 

Hatred, dull-eared and blind, 
Hatred, of unsound mind, 
Hatred, which gropes to find 

That which is worst. 
How could it judge a heart, 
Where wrong and suffering start 
The throbbing valves apart. 

E'en till they burst? 

How could it hear the call, 
Through life's grim silence fall, 
Sounding to waken all 

Those souls who sleep ? 
How could it see the height, 
That to to those eyes was bright 
Where, as a sun, in might 

Freedom shall sweep? 

Not for the hearts that bled. 
Not for the bride unwed, 
Children and wives unfed. 

Should our tears be shed ; 
But for the palsied brains. 
But for the stagnant veins, 
For the greed that sucks its gains 

From human woe. 



THE DEATH OF MAMMON. 9I 

One with a gentle word, 
One with a sob unheard 
Of warning love ; a third 

With triumph cry. 
Meeting the rope's embrace, 
Of gallows' old disgrace, 
Making a holy place ; 

Thus did they die. 

And when in later days, 
Bards all sing lofty lays, 
In Freedom's maker's praise 

Their names shall live ; 
And hearts which cannot sing. 
Shall the pure incense swing 
Of love that all may bring 

That each will give." 

— Anon. 



He H< ^ ^ 



O poet child of light, 
Soul-pure and sparkling bright, 
White- winged as angel's flight 

Sweep' st thou the chord ; 
Down deep in human hearts, 
From eyes the anguish starts. 
From conscience with' ring smart 

Smote by th3'^ word. 



92 THH LIGHT OF PERSIA ; OR 

Let not my voice be stilled, 
lyet not my pen be willed, 
Let not my soul be thrilled 

With less lofty strain ; 
Till lust and greed apace, 
All vanquished in disgrace, 
Hunted from place to place 

Mocked in disdain. 

Let all the earth rejoice ! 
Poets have yet a voice ! 
Honor hath yet a choice ! 

Ivife yet a soul ! 
Courage hath yet a word ! 
Thunder it till all have heard ! 
Hasten with one accord ! 

Freedom's the goal ! 

—G. P. M. 



THE POET. 

His home is in the heights : to him 
Men wage a battle weird and dim, 
Life is a mission stern as fate, 
And Song a dread apostolate. 
The toils of prophecy are his, 
To hail the coming centuries — 
To ease the steps and lift the load 
Of souls that falter on the road. 



THE DEATH OF MAMMON. 93 

The perilous music that he hears 
Falls from the vortice of the spheres. 
He presses on before the race, 
And sings out of a silent place. 
Like faint notes of a forest bird 
On heights afar that voice is heard ; 
And the dim path he breaks to-day. 
Will some time be a trodden way. 
But when the race comes toiling on 
That voice of wonder will be gone — 
Be heard on higher peaks afar, 
Moved upward with the morning star. 

O men of earth, that wandering voice 
Still goes the upward way : rejoice ! 



THE INVOCATION. 

An extract from the "Decoration Day Poem'' 
entitled Once a Year. Published by request 
in the Emporia (Kas.) Daily Democrat^ 3d 
June, 1889. 

O, Nature all beautiful — All bountiful God! 

We praise Thee, we bless Thee, that under the sod 
The seed of its kind grows the richest flower, 
For having been kept awhile by the power 

Of thine own reproduction, by the warmth of the sun; 



94 I'HE LIGHT OF PERSIA ; OR 

B}' the dew -distilled vapor, and by every one 
Of thy manifold secrets of light, earth and sea, 
And man ! the arbiter of his own destin}- — 
"The measure and judge of the things that be" 
Goes down to the grave — that part of the whole 
Grand plan of progression where body and soul 
Commingle, unite, reproduced in perfection, 
Attended by the law of immutable resurrection, 
And the last grand era shall heave up the sea 
Of the slumbering ages, awakened and free! 



AGITATE ! 



THE DEATH OF MAMMON. 95 

TABLE OF FIRST LINES. 
No. P^S^' 

I — Hast thou to me a meaning, - - 19 

O life ! of idle dreaming — 
Always dreaming — ever seeming 
To be what nothing is ? 

2 — Thou southern orb of night, - - -30 

Thy disc of burnished gold, 
Blending silver in its light. 
Subdues a jagged world ; 
And gives to it a beauty born of the Omnipotent. 

2 — I live too much away from Nature's own. 32 

4 — He who hath lived and left no word or sign. 35 

^ — O war ! thou fury of the past ! - - 37 

How ruthless thy conception cast ; 
Into the mould of greed and hate. 

5 — I yyalk by homes of laughter, of music, jest 42 
and mirth, 
But since the war I've had no home. 

y — The invisible hosts are marching in a caval- 46 
cade of might ! 

8 — " Want!" in a land of plenty? - - - 51 
" Want !" did I hear you say ? 
Want in a land of harvests ? 
Want in America ? 

9 — Sprinkle with spices and cedar and camphor 56 
gum, evenly, so. 

10 — The roots of the State, are they flourishing ? 60 

II — It is coming ! It is coming ! Lo ! I warn you 65 
to be ready. 



96 THE LIGHT OF PERSIA ; OR 

12 — Hail ! All Hail ! Thou Light appointed, 69 

Hail thy coming at this hour ! 

13 — We question not in spring time the budding 76 
of the trees. 

14 — My friend, come now, and succor me. - 78 

15 — God give us men? A time like this de- 79 
mands 
Strong minds, great hearts, true faith and ready 
hands. 

16 — When the land is full of workers, - - 79 
Busy hands and active brains . 

17 — There is a sullen artificial sea ! - - 81 

18 — Signals of Storm o'er the lakes and the land. 82 

19 — Rare, gentle souls, tuned like a silver bell. 83 

20 — State ! the proudest of the West. - - 84 

21 — The old earth reels inebriate with guilt. - 4 

22 — Shame upon thee, craven spirit. - - 87 

23 — Men of thought ! be up and stirring night and 27 
day. 

24 — Swing inward, O gates of the future. - 18 

25 — Under the cruel tree. - - - - - 89 

26 — His Home is in the heights, to him. - 92 

27 — O Nature all beautiful, all bountiful God ' 93 
28 — Through my wife will I speak to the people. 
29 — While I now this "proof" am reading. 

30 — We have no merit of our own in pleading. 26 

31 — O poet child of light. - - - 91 



THE DEATH OF MAMMON. 97 

THE PESSIMIST. 

** I have gathered a posie of other men's flowers, and 
nothing but the thread that binds them is my own." 
— Montaigue. 

"Again and again 'tis repeated, 
From morn till the close of day, 

(And the cities traffic and rattle) 

And of sun's line there is scarcely a ray," 

—Mrs. M. M. Lyle. 

**Mine be a cot beside the hill: 
A bee hive's hum shall soothe my ear, 

A willing brook that turns a mill 

With many a fall, shall linger near." 

— Samuel Rogers. 

* 'Never so old as when we dream of youth 
And long for it — a thing apart and gone." 

— Veley. 

' 'Touch us gently, Time ! 

We've not proud nor soaring wings; 
Our ambition, our content 

Ivies in simple things." — Crowell. 

"Would'st thou the unseen spirit see? 
First begin to know thy self, and He 
Will then be shadowed forth in thee." 

— Russian. 



98 THE LIGHT OF PERSIA ; OR 

"Hate the evil and love the good, and establish 
justice in the gate." ' 'Let justice roll down as waters, 
and righteousness as a mighty stream." — Hebrew 
Prophecy. 

**Blow, blow ye winds with heavier gust! 
And freeze, thou bitter biting frost! 
Descend, ye chilly smothering snows, 
Not all your rage, as now united, shows 
More hard unkindness, unrelenting, 
Vengeful malice unrepenting, 
Than heaven-illuminated man to man on brother 
man bestow." — Burjis. 

All the rivers run into the sea, 

O, thou bounding, brimming river, 

Hurrying heart! I seem 

To know (as one knows in a dream) 

That in the waiting heart of God forever 

Thou too shalt find the sea." 

— Elizabeth Stewart Phelps. 

' 'Art sick ? art sad ? art angry with the world ! 

Do all friends fail thee ? Why, then, give thyself 

Unto the forests and the ambrosial fields : 

Commerce with them and the eternal sky. 

Despair not, fellow. He who casts himself 

On Nature's fair, full bosom and draws food, ' 

Drinks from a fountain that is never dry. 

The poet haunts these. Youth that never grows old 

Dwells with her and her bowers : and beauty sleeps 



THE DEATH OF MAMMON. 99 

In her most green recesses, to be found 

By all who seek her truly." — Bany Cornwall. 

Well said, well written, and well sung; 

But * 'Merssrs. ten per cent" have wrung 

The hope, the life, the very soul 

From man, and Nature's bountiful. — G. P. M. 

"What! not going to the country ?" 

— Society Notes, 

"It is because the few have got control of all the 
avenues of wealth, of all the channels of profit, and 
appropriated the proceeds of the labors of the many. 
They fence in every fountain, and bestride every 
stream and dole out the waters grudgingly, in small 
quantities, and for such service as they themselves 
shall command." — David Ovej^myer, in the Voice of 
Labor, i88g. 

' ' Yes we may all congratulate ourselves that this 
cruel war is neariug a close. It has cost a vast amount 
of treasure and blood. The best blood of the flower of 
American youth has been freel}^ offered upon our 
country's altar that the nation might live. It has 
indeed been a trying hour for the republic ; but I see 
in the near future a crisis arising that unnerves me and 
causes me to tremble for the safet}^ of my country. As 
a result of the war, corporations have been enthroned, 
and an era of corruption in high places will follow, and 
the money power will endeavor to prolong its reign 



lOO THE LIGHT OF PERSIA ; OR 

b}^ working upon the prejudices of the people until all 
wealth is aggregated in few hands and the republic is 
destroyed. I feel at this moment more anxiety for the 
safety of my country than ever before even in the 
midst of war. God grant that my suspicion may 
prove groundless. — Extract from private letter : Abra- 
ham Lmcohi. 

Were his fears groundless ? Read the following care- 
fully, ponder over it with the plan laid down in the 
' Hazzard Circulars' forget not that there were College 
Presidents, Professors of High schools, Teachers, 
Poets, Artists, Artisans and Laborers, 3,000,000 of 
them, tramping and begging for bread in 1873, that 
now, as I write, this cold, raw day Jan. 20th, 1890 — 
40,000 idle men are tramping the streets of Chicago, 
from lack of work, all the result of the following diabol- 
ical so-called " Laws." 



Laws of Financial Death. 

1. The law putting two exceptions in the United States 
notes, (greenbacks) passed February 25, 1S62. 

2. The national banking law, passed March 25. 1863. 

3. The law authorizing the contraction of the currency, 
passed March 6, 1868. 

4. The act to strengthen the public credit (so-called,) passed 
March 18, 1869. 

5. The act to fund the national debt, passed July 14, 1870. 

6. The act demonetizing silver, passed March 12, 1873. 

7. The resumption act, passed January 14, 1864, to be con- 
summated Junuary I, 1879. 



THE DEATH OF MAMMON. Id 

Legislation that is bought, can no more be law than 
can varioloid, be called small pox — symptoms are not 
disease. — G. P. M. 



GREENBACKS? Yes! 

' * Congress shall have power to declare war .... 
to coin mone}' .... to regulate the value thereof." 
— The Constitutio7i. 

"To coin — to make money ; to coin as a word." — 
Worceste7\ 

When the war cloud had assumed formidable pro- 
portions. Money was tendered to the government by 
Wall Street Brokers, "At from 24 to 36 per cent 
interest." — Apple ton' s Cyclopedia, fo?' 186 1, Page 2^6. 

"July 17, 1861, and February 12, 1862, came the 
"Enactments" authorizing the issue of $66,cro,ooo 
treasury notes, not bearing interest and payable for 
all debts, public and private. These first issues of 
greenbacks constituted the demand notes, which, un- 
like all subsequent issues, did not contain the exception 
clause, consequently they have always been at par with 
gold. Wherever gold went these demand notes could 
go, even into the coffers of the bondholders. They 
paid his interest, paid duties on imports, the million- 
aire took off his hat to them, and the banks made 
obeisance. ' ' — Emery. 



I02 



THE LIGHT OF PERSIA ; OR 



THE PROOF OF A CONSPIRACY 



BETWEEN THE AMERICAN AND EUROPEAN BANKERS 
TO ROB THE PUBIvIC. 

Read this carefully. Ponder it well, and then 
make up your mind regarding you duty to vote for 
the party of the people. 

CONSOLIDATED ROBBERS' ASSOCIATION, ESTABI^ISHED 

IN 1862. 



HAZZARD CIRCUIvAR. 

Slaver}' is likely to be abol- 
ished by the war power, and 
chattel slavery be destroyed. 
This I aud my European 
friends are in favor of, for 
slavery is but the owning of 
labor, and carries with it the 
care for the laborer, while the 
European plan, led on by Eng- 
land, is capital control of la- 
bor by controlling wages. This 
can be done by controlling the 
money . 

The great debt that capital 
will see to it is made out of the 
war, must be used as the means 
to control the volume of 
money. To accomplish this, 
tne bonds must be used as a 
banking basis. 

We are now waiting to get 
the Secretary of the Treasury 
to make the recommendation 
to Congress. It will not do to 
allow the greenback, as it is 
called, to circulate as money 
for any length of time, for we 
cannot control that, but we can 
control the bonds, and through 
them the bank issue. 



THE BANK CIRCUIyAR. 

Dkar Sir: It is advisable 
to "do all in your power to sus- 
tain such daily and prominent 
weekly newspapers, especially 
the agricultural and religious 
press, as will oppose the issu- 
ing of greenback paper money, 
and that you also withhold 
patronage or favors from all 
who will not oppose the gov- 
ernment issue of money. Let 
the government issue the coin 
and the banks issue the paper 
money of the country, for then 
we can better protect each 
other. To repeal the law cre- 
ating national bank notes, or 
to restore to circulation the 
government issues of money 
will be to provide the people 
with money, and will, there- 
fore, seriously affect your indi- 
vidual profit as bankers and 
leaders. See your member of 
Congress at once, and engage 
him to support our interest 
that we may control legisla- 
tion. 



THE DEATH OF MAMMON. 103 

Immediately after the passage of the Legal Tender 
Act above cited, a bankers' convention assembled in 
Washington. The result of their "consultation" was 
the "exception clause" on the greenback, and was 
consummated February 25, 1862, "wherein it was 
stipulated that the greenback should be legal tender 
for all debts, public and private, except duties on hn- 
porfs ajid interest 071 the public debt, zvhich from that 
time forward should be paid in coiny 



Thk Voice: of History. 

The [legal tender] bill was no sooner made public 
than delegations of bankers from New York, Boston 
and Philadelphia hurried to Washington to oppose it. 
They organized in a formal manner by selecting a 
chairman (S. A. Mercer, of Philadelphia,) and invited 
the finance committee of the senate and the committee 
of ways and means of the house to meet them at the office 
of the Secretary of the Treasury, January 11, 1862. 
The invitation was accepted. At the meeting which 
followed the bankers spoke in opposition to the bill. 
>H: * >!< The bank delegates remained in Washing- 
ton and held further consultations with Secretary 
Chase, extending through several daj^s, which re- 
sulted in an arrangement with him to the effect, 
amongst other things, that congress should be urged 
to pass the National Bank bill, etc. — Berkey' s Mone- 
tary System, i8j6. 



I04 THE LIGHT OF PERSIA ; OR 

Testimony of Thaddeus Stevens. 

Mr. Speaker — I have a very few words to say. I 
approach the subject with more depression of spirits 
than I ever approached any question. No personal 
motive influences me. I hope not, at least. I have a 
melancholy foreboding that we are about to cosummate 
a cunningly devised scheme, which will carry great 
injury and great loss to all classes of people through- 
out this union, except one. With my colleague, I be- 
lieve that no act of legislation was ever hailed with as 
much delight throughout the length and breadth of 
this union, by every class of people without exception, 
as the bill which we passed and sent to the senate. 
Congratulations from all classes, merchants, traders, 
manufacturers, mechanics and laborers, poured in upon 
us from all quarters. The Boards of Trade from Bos- 
ton, New York, Philadelphia, Cincinnati, Louisville, 
St, lyouis, Chicago and Milwaukee approved its pro- 
vision and urged its passage as it was. 

I have a dispatch from the Chamber of Commerce, 
Cincinnati, sent to the Treasurer, and b}' him to me, 
urging the speedy passage of the bill as it passed the 
house. 

It is true there was a doleful sound came up from 
the caverns of bullion brokers and from the saloons of 
the associated banks. Their cashiers and agents were 
soon on the ground, and persuaded the senate with 
but little deliberation, to mangle and destroy what it 
had cost the house months to digest, consider and pass. 
They fell upon the bill in hot haste, and so disfigured 



THE DEATH OF MAMMON. 105 

and deformed it, that its father would not know it. 
Instead of being a beneficent and invigorating measure, 
it is positively mischievous. It has all the bad qual- 
ities which its enemies charged on the original bill 
and none of its benefits. It now creates money, and 
by its very terms declares it a depreciated currency. 
It makes two classes of money, one for banks and 
brokers, and another for the people. It discriminates 
between the rights of different classes of creditors, al- 
lowing the capitalists to demand gold, and compelling 
the ordinary lender of money on individual security to 
receive notes which the government had purposely 
discredited. * * ^ AH classes of people shall 
take these legal tender notes at par for every article of 
trade or contract, unless they have money enough to 
buy United States bonds, and then they shall be paid 
in gold. Who is that favored class ? The banks and 
brokers and nobody else. — Speech in house, February 
20, 1886. 

Testimony of Wm. D. Kklley. 

I remember the grand old commoner, Thaddeus Ste- 
vens, with his hat in his hand and his cane under his 
arm, when he returned to the house after his final con 
ference (on the exception clause,) and shedding bitter 
tears over the result. "Yes," said he, we had to 
yield . the senate was stubborn. We did not yield 
until we found that the country must be lost or the 
banks gratified, and we have sought to save the countrj^ 
in spite of the cupidity of its wealthiest citizens." — 
Judge W. D. Kelley, Philadelphia; J ami ayy 75, iSdy. 



Io6 THE LIGHT OF PERSIA ; OR 

Testimony of Henry Wii^son. 

It is a contest between the broker, jobbers and 
money changers on the one side, and the people of the 
United States on the other. I venture to express the 
opinion that ninety-nine of every hundred of the loyal 
people of the United States are for this legal tender 
clause. — Wilson's Speech in the Senate, Feb. 75, 1882. 

"Next on the calendar" comes the National Bank- 
ing Law, passed March 25, 1863. 

Moulton's History of American Finances, page 131, 
states the case as follows : 

Mr. Sherman now introduced the National Bank 
bill. After a lengthy debate it passed the Senate by 
a vote of 23 to 21. In the mean time there had been 
several bills for the same purpose introduced and re- 
ferred to the committee in the house. When the 
senate bill come down it was not referred, as usual, 
but brought before the house wnthout consideration in 
committee with other similar bills. It was not dis- 
cussed in committee of the whole, but under a motion 
to refer, which cut off all amendments, the friends of 
the bill debated its general merits. When, by parlia 
mentary tactics, it was forced to a final vote it passed 
under the gag rule of the previous question by a vote 
of 78 to 64. 

"My agency in procuring the passage of the na- 
tional bank act, was the greatest financial mistake of 
my life. It has built up a monopoly that affects every 
interest in the country. It should be repealed. But 



THE DEATH OF MAMMON. 107 

before this can be accomplished, the people will be 
arrayed on one side and the banks on the other, in a 
contest such as we have never seen in this country." 
— Salmon P. Chase. 

"The two first steps of the plot as laid down in the 
"Hazard Circular" were now taken, viz: Abolition 
of chattel slavery, and the establishment of a bankers' 
currency, based on the public debt; a debt which was 
forced upon the people and for which there was no 
earthly use, but which was intended to be, and is, a 
curse." .... 

The next step was to get rid of the greenback and 
treasuiy note. To accomplish this the ever-obedient 
Congress passed a law authorizing the Secretary (Mc- 
Culloch) of the Treasury to sell 5-20 bonds and with 
the proceeds retii^e United States currency, including 
GREENBACKS. The Secretary was so anxious to do 
the bidding of the money-masters in the matter of 
pushing the contraction of the currency and the de- 
struction of the greenbacks that the far-seeing Buffalo 
banker, E. G. Spaulding, a member ot Congress, seeing 
a financial crash impending, wrote him as follows : 

" You no doubt, now, to a certain extent have con- 
trol of the currency of the coimtry, and I think that vou 
will, of necessity, ^^^z/r^^r/ moderately (i. e., destroy 
more slowly), so as to preserve a tolerably easy money 
market. There may be occasional spasms of tightness 
for money, but generally I shall look for plenty of 
money for at least a year to come. ' ' 



Io8 THE LIGHT OF PERSIA ; OR 

""Did anybody ever read a more diabolical letter?" 
—D. P. Hubbard. 

This "Act" of Congress became "The Law au- 
thorizing the contraction of the currency," and passed 
March 6, 1866. 

The other vicious "Acts" following each other in 
rapid succession were respectively : 

The act to strengthen the public credit (so called), 
passed March 18, 1869. 

The act to fund the national debt, passed July 14, 
1870. 

The act to " demon" -e-tize silver, passed March 12, 

1873- 
The resumption act, passed January 14, 1864, to be 

consummated January i, 1879. 

Thus was the " Hazzard Circular" literally carried 
out to the letter. 

And what was all this done for ? 

To make gold, alone, money. — G. P. M. 

^^ ^JN ^^ <I^ '^ ^^ 

The machinery is now furnished b}^ which in any 
emergency the financial corporations of the east can 
act together at a single day's notice with such power 
that no act of congress can overcome or resist their de- 
cision. — A^ew Yoi^k Tribune in iSy^.. 

' * We are now one in Commercial interests with Eng- 
land. The Bankers of America, — 3000 of them, — 
the monopolist and speculator rule America by con- 
trolling the money of the country, and they also con- 



THE DEATH OF MAMMON. I09 

trol the vast army of Labor by having this mighty 
engine of power in their lawless hands. Ruin stares 
us in the face ! Shall we tamely submit ? or, shall 
we loyally rebel ? is the question of the hour." — D. P . 
Hubbard. 

" No people in a great emergency ever found a faith" 
ful ally in gold. It is the most cowardly and treach' 
erous of all metals. It makes no treaty it does no 
break. It has no friend it does not sooner or later 
betray, armies and navies are not maintained b}^ gold. 
In times of panic and calamity, shipwreck and dis- 
aster, it becomes the agent and minister of ruin. No 
nation ever fought a great war by the aid of gold. On 
the contrary, in the crisis of the greatest peril, it be- 
comes an enemy more potent than the foe in the field ; 
but when the battle is won and peace has been secured, 
gold reappears and claims the fruits of victory. In 
our own civil war it is doubtful if the gold of New 
York and London did not work us greater injury than 
the powder and lead and iron of the rebels. It was the 
most invincible enemy of the public credit. Gold paid 
no soldier or sailor. It refused the national obligations. 
It was worth most when our fortunes were the lowest. 
Every defeat gave it increased value. It was in open 
alliance with our enemies the world over, and all its 
energies were evoked for our destruction. But as 
usual, when danger has been averted, and the victory 
secured, gold swaggers to the front and asserts the su- 
premac3^ — Installs' speech in the U. S. Senate^ Febru- 
ary 15, 1878. 



no THE LIGHT OF PERSIA ; OR 

ALMOST A TRAGEDY. 
" Do you ask for an apology ?" — Dean. 
' ' This is my apology." — Westphal. 
" Honest men are rarely rich." — Booth. 

"Homeless a vagabond he wanders the earth." — 
Old Song. 

' ' Out in the cold world, out in the street, 
Asking a penny from each one I meet." 

— Post War Song. 

" Meantime, the tramp, tramp, tramp, sounds on, — 
the tramp of sixty thousand yearly victims. Some 
are besotted and stupid, some are wild with hilarity, 
and dance along the dusty way, some reel along in 
pitiful w^eakness, some wreak their mad and murder- 
ous impulses on the helpless women and children whose 
destinies are united with theirs, some go bound in 
chains from which they seek in vain to wrench their 
bleeding wrists, and all are poisoned in body and soul, 
and all are doomed to death. ^/. G. Hollaiid. 

" Abolish want and you abolish crime." — Treat. 

"Prudence indeed, will dictate, that governments 
long established should not be changed for light and 
transient causes ; and accordingly all experience hath 
shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer while 



THE DEATH OF MAMMON. Ill 

evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abol- 
ishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But 
when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing 
invariably the same object, evinces a design to reduce 
them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it 
their duty, to throw off such government, and to 
provide new guards for their future security." — Dec- 
laration of Independence. 

Viewed in the light of Looking Backward. How 
prophetical are the words of the following extract : 
" And, sir, where American liberty raised its first voice, 
and where its youth was nurtured and sustained, there 
it still lives, in the strength of its manhood, and full 
of its original spirit. If discord and disunion shall 
wound it — if party strife and blind ambition shall 
hawk at and tear it ; if folly and madness, if uneasi- 
ness under salutary and necessary restraint, shall suc- 
ceed to separate it from that Union by which alone its 
existence is made sure, it will stand, in the end, by 
the side of that cradle in which its infancy it was rocked ; 
AND IT WILI. FALL AT LAST, IF FALL IT MUST, amid 
the proudest monuments of its own glor)^ AND ON 
THE VERY SPOT OF ITS O^lOl^.'' —Web ste?. 

" And now, sirs, to my apology." — Kempis. 

"Serfdom and aristocracy are, in fact, the correla- 
tives of each other. Wherever there are serfs, then 
there are autocrats; and wherever there are are auto- 
crats, there, then, are serfs; aud though the laborers 



112 THE LIGHT OF PERSIA ; OR 

of England are not serfs in one sense, inasmuch as 
they may emigrate if they can find the means, they 
are to all intents and purposes serfs so long as they 
remain in England. It is a mere fallac}' to suppose 
that serfdom has been abolished in England. It has 
not been abolished; it has onl}^ been generalized. 
Serfdom, or even slavery, maybe abolished in appear- 
ance, and yet retained in reality, the means of com- 
pulsion being changed ^Yith the advance of society, 
which would no longer tolerate the open employment 
of individual force." — Dove. 

"Tlie ownership of land is the basis of autocracy. 
The simple privilege of the ownership of the 
soil produced, on the one side the lord, on the other 
the vassal — the one having all the rights, the other 
none. The right of the lord of the soil acknowledged 
and maintained, those who lived upon it could onh^ do 
so upon his terms. . . . The English land owner 
of to day has, in the law which recognizes his exclu- 
sive right to the land, essentially all the power which 
his predecessor, the feudal baron, had. . . . Be- 
tween the condition of the rack rented Irish peasant 
and the Russian serf, the advantage was in many things 
on the side of the serf." — Gcoige. 

' Eet the political arrangements be what they may, 
let there be universal or any other suffrage, so long as 
the aristocracy have all the land, and derive the rent 
of it. the laborer is only a serf, and a serf he will re- 
main until he has uprooted the rights of private landed 



THE DEATH OF MAMMON. II3 

property. The land is for the nation, and not for the 
aristocracy. We affirm, then, that serfdom has not 
been abolished, but only generalized, in England, 
Ireland and Scotland. . . A serf is a man who, by 
the arrangements of mankind, is deprived of the ob- 
ject on which he might expend his labor, or of the 
natural profit that results from the labor, and conse- 
quently, is under the necessity of supporting himself 
and his family by his labor alone. And a lord, or an 
autocrat, is a man who, by the arrangements of man- 
kind, is made to possess the object, and who, conse- 
quently, can support himself and his family without 
labor, on the profits created by the labor of others." — 
Dove, page 153. 

' ' And what is the cause of human pauperism and 
degredation ? For the two go hand in hand. , . . . 
Does any man suppose that the nation will much longer 
believe that Britain cannot support its inhabitants? 
Does any man believe that the men who can make 
steam engines, cotton mills, and railroads, and ships, 
and the largest commerce in the world, and spinning 
jennies, and steam printing machines, and Skerry vore 
lighthouses and electric telegraphs, and a thousand 
other wonders, could not make such a distribution of 
Britain as should enable every man in it, and many 
more, to earn an abundant Hvelihood by their lah^or? 
Does any man believe this? And if he does not be 
lieve it, does he suppose that any superstitious notions 
about the king's right to grant the soil to individuals 
will long stand in the way of their doiyig it? If En- 
glishmen discover that pauperism and wretchedness 



114 THE LICxHT OF PERSIA; OR 

are unnecessary ; that the degradation of the laboring 
population, their moral degradation consequent on 
poverty, is the curse of the laws and not of nature- 
does any man suppose that Englishmen would not be 
Justified in abolishing such laws, or that they will not 
abolish them ? Can we believe for a moment that if 
any arrangements would enable the population to find 
plenty, that such an arrangement will not be made ? 
If any man believe this, he is at all events willing to 
be credulous. For ourselves we believe it not " — 
Dove, page 312. 

" Place one hundred men on an island from which 
there is no escape, and whether you make one of these 
men the absolute owner of the other ninety- nine — or 
the absolute owner of the soil of the island, will make 
no difference either to him or to them. 

In the one case, as in the other, the one will be the 
absolute master of the ninety-nine — his power extend- 
ing even to life and death, for simply to refuse them 
permission to live upon the island would be to force 
them into the sea. 

Upon a larger scale, and through more complex rela- 
tions, the same cause must operate in the same way 
and to the same end — the ultimate result, the enslave- 
ment of laborers, becoming apparent just as the press- 
ure increases which compels them to live ou and from 
land which is treated as the exclusive property of 
others. 

Take a country in which the soil is divided among a 
number of proprietors, instead of being in the hands 



THE DEATH OF MAMMON. II5 

of one, and in which, as in modern production, the 
capitalist has been specialized from the laborer, and 
manufactures and exchange, and all their many 
branches, have been separated from agriculture. 
Though less direct and obvious, the relations between 
the owner of the soil and the laborers will, with in- 
crease of population and the improvements of the arts, 
tend to the same absolute mastery on the one hand, 
and the same abject helplessness on the other, as in the 
case of the island we have supposed. Rent will ad- 
vance, while wages will fall. Of the aggregate prod- 
uce, the landowner will get a constantly increasing, 
the laborer a constantly diminishing, share. Just as 
removal to cheaper land becomes difficult and impossi- 
ble, laborers, no matter what they produce, will be re- 
duced to a bare living, and the free competition among 
them, where land is monopolized, will force them to a 
condition which, though they ma}^ be mocked with the 
titles and insignia of freedom, will be virtually that of 
slavery," — Progress and Poverty, page 250. 

' ' Was it for this that the Almighty made man in 
his own image and gave him the earth for an inherit- 
ance ? Was it for this that he sent his Son into the 
world to proclaim the divine benevolence, to preach 
the doctrine of human brotherhood, and to lay the 
foundation of a kingdom that should endure forever 
and ever? We do not believe it, neither do we believe 
that pauperism comes from God. It is man's doing, 
and man's doing alone. God has abundantly supplied 
man with all the requisite means of support ; and 



Il6 THE LIGHT OF PERSIA ; OR 

where he cannot find support, we must look, not to 
the arrangement of the Almight}', but to the arrange- 
ments of men, and to the mode in which they have 
portioned out the earth. To charge the poverty of 
man to God, is to blaspheme the Creator instead of 
bowing in reverent thankfulness for the profusion of 
his goodness. He has given enough, abundance, more 
than sufficient ; and if man has not enough, we must 
look to the mode in which God's gifts have been dis- 
tributed. There is enough, enough for all, abundant- 
ly enough ; and all that is requisite is freedom to labor 
on the soil, and to extract from it the produce that 
God intended for man's support." — Dove, page jo8. 

' ' All can know that in a land so capable of yielding 
a bountiful harvest, into the willing hands of labor as 
is America, that when want arises, it must come 
through some outside cause, wrong, and unnecessary." 
—G. P. M, 

" Friends : I come not here to talk. Ye know too well 
The story of our thralldom ; We are slaves ! 
The bright sun rises to its course, and lights 
A race of slaves ! He sets, and his last beam 
Falls on a slave V'~M. R. Mitford. 

' ' And shall I never have a home 

O say ! my fellows, sa}^ ! 
Is there no room for such as me 

In all America."? — higrahajjt. 



THE DEATH OF MAMMON. II7 

THE MUSTER— A PROPHECY. 

' ' The earth hath He given to the children 
OF MEN." — Bible. 

' ' The land have i given for an heritage to 

ALL PEOPLE. " — Bible. 

"The land shall not be sold forever, for 
THE land is mine." — Bible. 

" Moreover, the profit of the earth is for 
K\.i.:'— Bible. 

"Woe unto him that useth his neighbor's 
service without wages and giveth him naught 
FOR his work." — Bible. 

"The original robbersof the people's land, not satis- 
fled with having ground enormous rents out of the 
sweat of the toilers all these years, propose to perpet- 
uate this dishonest villainy forever. >K >K H^ 
For a small part of the State of Pennsylvania, perish- 
able blankets were given in exchange for imperishable 
land. t^ ^ -^ ^- That is the only semi- 
honest oHginal title to land. All the rest has been 
stolen by the right of might and murder. The sword 
was used to write the title deeds instead of the pen, 
and blood is used instead of ink, and death was dealt 
out instead of money. And this is the foundation that 
so-called sacred vested rights stand on. 

They say that although my title was originally bad, 



ii8 Yhe light oi^ pe:rsia ; or 

a hundred years has made it good. But I say that no 
length of time can ever convert an original robbery 
into an honest transaction, and justice can never sleep 
so long that she has no right to wake and reform." — 
Looking Forward. 

*** 

' ' A change of society is as much to the interest of 
those who have property as it is to those who have 
not, and if they are not fools they will help us change 
the coming revolution into a peaceful evolution. But 
Carlisle said that England was a nation of twenty-six 
millions inhabitants, mostly fools. If that is true of 
America, we may have a revolution." — Prof. Orchard- 
son. 

' ' Then woe to the rule that has plundered. 

And trod down the wounded and slain. 
While the wars of the old time have thundered, 

And men poured their life tide in vain ; 
The day of its triumph is ending, 

The evening draws near with its doom. 
And the star of its strength is descending, 

To sleep in dishonor and gloom. "^/<2^. G. Clark. 

Thousands have been led to ask: 

"How comes it that, notwithstanding man's vast 
achievements, his wonderful efforts of mechanical in- 
genuity, and the amazing productions of his skill, his 
own condition in a social capacity should not have 
improved in the same ratio as the improvement of his 



THE DEATH OF MAMMON. 1 19 

condition with regard to the material world ? In Britain 
man has to a great extent beaten the material world. 
He has vanquished it, overpowered it; he can make it 
serve him; he can use not merely his muscles, but the 
very powers of nature, to effect his purposes; his reason 
has triumphed over matter; and matters, tendencies 
and powers are to a great extent subject to his will. 
And, notwithstanding this, a large portion of the pop- 
ulation is reduced to pauperism, to that fearful state 
of dependence in which man finds himself a blot on 
the universe of God — a wretch thrown up by the waves 
of time, without a use and without an end, homeless 
in the presence of the firmament, and helpless in the 

face of the creation Is it a matter of 

necessity that there shall be paupers (that vile word) 
in the richest country in the world ? Is it true that 
England can no longer support Englishmen; nor Ire- 
land, Irishmen; nor Scotland, Scotchmen? Have we, 
in fact, arrived at the last term of population, and 
must all, over and above, expatriate or starve? Is this 

true, or is it false? Either pauperism 

and degradation are the work of the Creator of our 
system, the All -Powerful who has placed present man 
in circumstances where the natural capabilities of the 
earth are insufl&cint for his support; or pauperism and 
degradation are the work of fallen man, who, through 
ignorance, has based his arrangements of the earth on 
superstitious propositions, and thereby necessarily has 
rendered it impossible that the amount of good in- 
tended by the Creator can be extracted from the earth. 
The evil is expressed in a few words; 



I20 . THE LIGHT OF PERSIA ; OR 

and sooner or later, the nation will appreciate it and 
rectify it. It is 'the alienation of the soil from the 
State, and the consequent taxation of the industry of 
the country,' Britain may go on producing with 
wondarful energy, and accomplish far more than she 
has yet accomplished. She may struggle as Britain 
only can struggle. She may present to the world 
peace at home when the nations of Europe are filled 
with insurrection. 

She may lead foremost in the march of civilization 
and be first among the kingdoms of the earth. All 
this she may do, and niore. But as certain as Britain 
continues her present social arrangement, so certainly 
will there come a time when — the other questions 
being cleared on this side and on that side, and the 
main question being brought into the arena — the labor 
of Britain will emancipate itself from thraldom. G. ::d- 
ually and surely has the separation been taking place 
between the privileged land owner and the unpri\ i- 
leged laborer. And the time will come at last that 
there should be but two parties looking each other in 
the face, and knowing that the destruction of one is 
an event of necessary occurrence. That event must 
come. . . . Of the two parties, one must give way. 
One must sink to rise no more ; one must disappear 
from the earth. The continued existence is incom- 
patible. Nature cannot support both. And when 
once this last great question of liberty has been dis- 
posed of, the country cannot fail to commence another 
evolution, and enter on a line of progress that shall 
ultimately place men on the equality with regard to 



THE DEATH OF MAMMON. 12 1 

natural property that will then prevail with regard to 
political liberty." — 77^^ Theory of Human Progression. 

"The great social problem, (for the whole world) 
then, .... is, "TO discover such a system as 

SHALL SECURE TO EVERY MAN HIS EXACT SHARE OF 
THE NATURAL ADVANTAGES WHICH THE CREATOR 
HAS PROVIDED FOR THE RACE ; WHILE, AT THE SAME 
TIME, HE HAS FULL OPPORTUNITY, WITHOUT LET OR 
HINDRANCE, TO EXERCISE HIS SKILL, INDUSTRY, AND 
PERSEVERANCE FOR HIS OWN ADVANTAGE." — The 
Twentieth Century. 

No truth can be more absolutely certain, as the in- 
tuitive proposition of the reason, than that "an ob- 
ject is the property of its Creator," and we maintain 
that creation is the only means by which an individual 
right to property can be generated. 

Consequently, as no individual and no generation 
is the creator of the substantive, earth, it belongs 
equally to all the existing inhabitants ; that is, no in- 
dividual has a special claim to more than another. 
But while on the one hand we take into consideration 
the object— that is, the earth— we must also take into 
consideration the subject ; that is, man and man's 

labor. 

The object is the common property of all, no indi- 
vidual being able to exhibit a title to any particular 

portion of it. 

And individual or private property is the increased 
value produced by individual labor. But the perma- 



122 I'HE LIGHT OI^ PERSIA ; OR 

nent earth can never be private property — although 
the laws may call it so, and may treat it as such — it 
must be possessed by the successive generations that 
succeed each other on the face of the globe ? . . . . 
How can the division of the advantages of the natural 
earth be effected ? By the division of its annual value 
or rent ; that is, by making the rent of the soil the 
common property of the nation. That is, (as the 
TAXATION is the common property of the state), by 

TAKING THE WHOLE OF THE TAXES OUT OF THE 
RENTS OF TnE SOIL, AND THEREBY ABOLISHING ALL 
OTHER KINDS OF TAXATION WHATEVER." — P. E. 

Dove. 

Then ''Take the land it is thine own."— 77z<? 
Muster. 



AMERICA. 



An Address to the American ' ' House of Lords " 
in behalf of the " commons." 



" A HUNDRED MEN WITH A MILLION A YEAR," 
*' A MILLION MEN WITH A HUNDRP^D A YEAR." 

"This could not be if justice reigned." 



THE DEATH OF MAMMON. 1 53 

*' The gulf is widening between Dives and Lazarus 
at a geometrical ratio, and if this impracticable society 
could possibly run fifty years longer, there would be 
ten men with a hundred million a year and twenty 
million with nothing. But it cannot last half that 
time, for when millions of willing workers are hungry 
in the presence of legally stolen wealth, their respect 
for the law evaporates." — Lookiyig Forward. 

' ' Any thing that a man can make it is his as 
against all the world. Anything that a man cannot 
make, that exists independent of him, such as air 
water and land is a gift of bountiful nature to all her 
children. Tyrants would comer \h^ air if they could." 
— Prof. C. Orchardso7i. 

* ' Civilization is impossible when material success is 
dependent on the development of the evil that is within 



us" 



"The private enterprise system of preventing the pro- 
duction of wealth, patch it or modify it as you may, it 
is so short-sighted and vicious to the core that it can 
never do anything but spread poverty and woe broad- 
cast " .... 

' ' The weapons of the past were sword and shield. 
The adepts in the use of those openl}- robbed the work- 
ers of their wealth. The weapons of the present are 
lobbying bills, purchasing legislatures, first and second 
mortgage bonds, preferred stocks, common stocks, 



124 I'HE LIGHT OF PERSIA ; OR 

speculation, adulteration, cornering markets and own- 
ership of machinery." — Prof. Orchardson. 

* ' The United States Senate is a pampered set of 
bloated obstructionists who obtain their seats b}^ bri- 
ber}^ and fraud and delegate their duties to irresponsi- 
ble sub-committees whose business it is to deceive 
themselves. " — Mclntyre. 

' ' The spawn of most fish sinks, but that of the pike 
and shark rises to the surface of the water." — Science. 

' ' Show me the law of the country and I will show 
you the condition of the people." — The Earl of Chat- 
ha77i. 

"The Exception Clause," consumated by Act 
of Congress, February 25, 1862. This is the "act" 
that crippled the greenback, making it read " Except 
Duties on Imports and Interest on the Public Debt." 
It is needness to say that this ' ' base acf ' was not ' ' ob- 
structed" by the United States Senate ; but was hur- 
ried to President Grant, who, it is said, "signed it 
without even looking at it" — no wonder that the mon- 
umental scheme at Riverside is an elephant on the 
hands of the committee ; for a poet has said — " Grant 
said that he did not know the nature of this bill. But 
his negligence was devilish and decidedly criminal." 
—G. P. M. 

The National Bank Act, passed in i863. Of all 
the villainous schemes of robbery ever practiced upon 



THE DEATH OF MAMMON. 1 25 

any people, our national bank system stands pre-emi- 
nent. This also was ratified and perpetuated by the 
" American House of Lords," of whom the poet has 
written : 

' ' The leaders to that fearful strife 
For sordid gain, are leaders still ; 
Who wield the whip that smites the life 
In freedom's name, from vale and hill. 

—G. P. M. 

''Thk Contraction Act," April 12, 1866, was 
passed, whereby it was provided that a regular and 
systematic cremation of greenbacks should take place. 
Let it be remembered that upon this government 
money, the greenback, the people did not pa}^ interest. 
It was backed by the government, which made it safe 
and reliable, and issued in sums convenient for small 
as well as large business transactions. 

" Thk Credit-Strengthening Act," March 18, 
1869. It is claimed by many bond holders and their 
leaders, that the act which authorized the issue of 
Bonds to which this act refers, made them pa}' able in 
gold. But there is no such possible interpretation of 
the act, else, why this very act? Grant, Sherman 
and Morton were parties to this soulless act. 

" The Refunding Act," July 14, 1870, provided 
for the refunding of the national debt. In other 
words, it was a scheme to perpetuate the debt, and a 
plot against the people to keep them forever under the 
yoke of bondage 



126 THE IJGHT OF PERSIA ; OR 

The Demonetization of Silver Act, passed in 
1873, was only another name for Contraction, another 
scheme to rob the people. It was not the American 
capitalist alone who entered into this murderous plot 
for demonetization of silver. In the Banker's Maga- 
zine of August, 1873, we find the following on the 
subject : 

In 1872, silver being demonetized in France, Eng- 
land and Holland, a capital of $500,000 was raised, 
and Earnest Seyd, of London, was sent to this country 
with this fund, as agent for the foreign bond holders 
and capitalists, to effect the same object (demonetiza- 
tion of silver), which was accomplished. There you 
have it, a paid agent of English capitalists sent to this 
country with $500,000 to buy the American Congress 
and rob the American people. In corroboration of this 
testimony we read from the Congressio7ial Record of 
April 9, 1872, page 2,032, these words: 

Earnest Seyd, of London, a distinguished writer 
and bullionist, who is now here, has given great atten- 
tion to the subject of mint coinage. After having ex- 
amined the first draft of this bill (for the demonitiza- 
tion of silver) he made various sensible suggestions, 
which the committee adopted and embodied in the 
bill. 

"The Resumption Act, January 24, 1875, author- 
ized the secretary of the treasury to destroy the frac- 
tional currency, and issue silver coin in like denomi- 
nations to take its place. The people had found the 
fractional currency convenient, not only as a medium 
of exchange at home but especially cheap and conve- 



THE DEATH OF MAMMON. 127 

nient for small remittance in trade. The destruction 
of this money was a serious injury to the business 
men of the country, for without fractional currency, 
even small remittances incurred the expense of a draft 
or money order. But Congress appeared to be look- 
ing after the interests of the money-monger, and not 
the prosperity of the country, so it next became nec- 
essary to issue bonds with which to purchase the silver 
bullion authorized for coinage. Eet it be remembered 
that these were untaxed, interest-bearing bonds, and 
of such large denominations that only capitalists were 
able to carry them, while to the debt-ridden people 
was added the interest of these very bonds, which 
could only exist by the destruction of the greenbacks 
and fractional currency upon which the public paid 
no interest." — Eviery. 

If a man should borrow $50 and give his note for 
$100, and then, after paying interest for twenty-five 
years beg for the privilege of paying $125 for the note, 
would you call that able financiering? Yet that is 
exactly what Uncle Sam has been and is doing — bu}^- 
ing bonds at $125 — $125 paid for $100, for which he 
received $50. Who gets the difference? The mon- 
e3^ed man who stayed at home to speculate while the 
bo3^s went to war and saved the country. Who pays 
the difference ? The men who work, for labor pays 
everything. And yet many soldiers who got 50 cents 
on the dollar while in the field, to support their fami- 
lies at home, now vote with the "grand old party," 
because they continually pat him on the back and 



128 THE LIGHT OF PERSIA ; OR 

point to the South and stir up the old enmity. The 
soldier is made to forget his own interest, and take up 
and howl for the interest of Capital, which controls the 
old party leaders. Fact, every word of it. And if 
you will only open your eyes and look the matter 
square!}^ in the face, you can't help seeing it. — Indus- 
trial Appeal. 

Abolish It. 

' ' The election of United Staters Senators by popular 
vote would make a nice twin to ballot reform." — K. 
C. Times. 

It would certainly be an improvement on the pres- 
ent system of selling the positions to the highest bid- 
der, but why not abolish the relic of feudalism and 
despotism entirely. The Senate was copied from the 
House of Lords of England, to represent the property 
and the gentry of America and to hold the common 
people in check, and it has served the purpose admir- 
ably. But the common people think they are now 
suflficientl}' civilized to govern themselves, and that 
the gentry and property of America seem to fare very 
well indeed, even in the House of Representatives. 
A bill has been introduced in the English House of 
Commons to abolish the House of Lords, and wh^^ 
should the republic retain the copy longer, than a 
monarchy retains the original ? Is America going to 
let England so far out -strip her in the progress 
towards freedom and true Democracy ?" — T/ie (Topeka 
Kan . ) Jeffersonian. 



THE DEATH OF MAMMON. 1 29 

*'Rev. C. M. Sheldon, pastor of the Central Congre- 
gational Church of this city, is preaching a series of 
able sermons on social problems. Wishing to ascer- 
tain for himself if work could be had in Topeka by 
those needing it, he disguised himself in a rough suit 
of laborer's clothes and after a day spent in applying 
at every place where work was likely to be found he 
discovered no opportunit}^ of earning his supper.' 

"On the same night that Mrs. Martin, of New York 
City, gave a ball which cost her fifty thousand dol- 
lars, another woman, a refined and educated mar- 
ried woman of thirty, with a sick and helpless hus- 
band, committed suicide because she had tramped the 
streets through the storm and without food until utterly 
exhausted in search of honest work. The letter she 
left to her sick husband was very pathetic and told 
how she could only find subsistence by combining 
wifely duties with domestic service for widowers or 
bachelors." — The Jeff ersonian, January 2jd, 188 g. 

A Prkgnant Prophecy. 

' 'The republic west of us will have its trial period, 
its darkest of all hours. It is traveling the high road 
to that direful day. And this scourge will not come 
amid famine's horrid stride ; nor will it come by ordi- 
nary primitive judgments. It will come as a hiatus 
in statescraft a murder-bungle in policy. It will be 
when health is intact, crops abundant, and the munifi- 
cent hand open. Then so-called statesmen will cry 



130 THE LIGHT OF PERSIA ; OR 

• overproduction;' the self-reliant, self-potent, will go 
to the ballot-box amid hunger and destitution, (but 
surrounded with the glitter of self-rule) and ratify by 
his ballot the monstrous falsehood, ' overproduction ' 
uttered by mis-statesmen, and vindicate by the same 
ballot, the infamous lie; 'overproduction,' thrown 
upon the breeze by a senile editor, through a corrupt 
press. And this brings ruin upon his country, serf- 
dom upon himself and death or oppression upon his 
children." — Thomas Carlyle. 

Why Farmers are Poor. 

Farmers are not usually aware of the great interest 
earning values of city, suburban, and mining lands, 
forests and other valuable real estate, nor do they re- 
alize that the enormous income derived by the owners 
of these valuable properties, are to a great extent a 
burden on the farmer. 

Nothing has i7iterest earniyig value, nor can have^ 
without power to tax production. 

All wealth is produced by labor, and all incomes of 
wealthy men consist of rent, interest and profits, paid 
by labor, either directly or indirectly. Much of what 
is called profits is really interest, and nearly all inter- 
est, when analyzed, will be found really rent. 

The total annual value, or income earning power, of 
the real estate alone, not counting buildings and other 
improvements, but only the bare land, of the four 
cities of New York, Chicago, Kansas City and St. 
I^puis, is fully one thousand millions of dollars. This 



THE DEATH OF MAMMON. 13I 

vast sum is a tax on production, and is paid by small 
tolls on every dollars' worth of produce seeking a mar- 
ket, and by every dollars' worth of goods sold, manu- 
factured, or shipped through these cities. As farmers 
are the great producers and consumers of goods they 
must of course pay the greatest amount of these tolls, 
which eventually find their lodgment in the pockets of 
the real estate owners. The charges of stockyards, 
grain elevators, commission men, and all classes of 
merchants and manufacturers must be sufficient to 
pay, first, the salaries of employes ; second, interests 
on buildings, machinery, stock, and other active capi- 
tal ; third, rent of— or interest— on the value of real 
estate occupied ; and fourth, profits, taxes and insur- 
ance. In the four cities above named, and in all 
other large business centers, rent or interest on value 
of land exclusive of all improvements, is found by ac- 
tual careful investigation to equal or exceed all other 
charges and expenses. The largest incomes in Amer- 
ica are those of the Astors, the Goelets and other real 
estate owners of New York City. Potter Palmer, who 
owns nothing but Chicago real estate, has the most 
palatial residence west of the Alleghenies, and of over 
forty millionaires in Kansas City and over seventy in 
St. Louis, every one has made their money in the rise 
of real estate, and have nearly all their money invested 
in real estate. 

The' terminal facilities of railroads, and their yards, 
shops, depot grounds, etc., in towns and cities passed 
through aggregates a land value of more than half 



132 THE LIGHT OF PERSIA ; OR 

the total value of the roads and equipments, hence 
half of all net profits of railroads goes to pa}^ rent. 

Mines of coal, lead, iron, zinc, copper and other 
metals, and pine or other forest lands, are almost ex- 
clusively the property ol wealthy men and corpora- 
tions, and draw from farmers and other production 
enormous rents. At least a hundred millionaires are 
known to derive their incomes from coal and other 
mines, and Michigan alone has ten men worth from 
five to fifty millions each, whose only property is pine 
lands. California's two hundred millionaires are all 
land owners and indebted to use of land values for 
their wealth. 

Land values are determined by their location. The 
fact that land is used for farming or stock raising is of 
itself evidence that it has no location value, but only 
a use or labor value, and under a just system of taxa- 
tion should pay little or no tax. If land has a loca- 
tion value it cannot and will not be profitably used 
for farming, but will be put to the more valuable use 
required by its location. 

From the above analysis it will be seen that farmers 
are now the great rent- payers to millionaires and cor- 
porations, as well as the great tax-payers for the entire 
nation. It is estimated by the best statisticians that 
more than three-fourths of the total national tariff and 
revenue taxation is paid by farmers. This would 
amount to three hundred millions annually, and as the 
tariff and revenue taxes are known to put five dollars 
in the pocket of monopolies for each dollar of real tax 
it makes a burden of one billion eight hundred million 



THE DEATH OE MAMMON. 133 

dollars per year on farmers, in addition to all state, 
county and local taxation, of which they pay the bulk. 
It will be seen that all values are diffused through 
all production and consumption, and that all incomes 
consist, of tolls levied upon producers through rents, 
interest, profits and taxes."— PK /?^. T. Wakefield. 



EMBALM IT. 

' ' Farewell ! a long farewell to all my great- 
ness. " — Shakspeare. 

' * And now the martyr is moving in triumphal 

MARCH, MIGHTIER THAN WHEN ALIVE." — H. W. 

Beecher. 

''John Maynard," with an anxious voice, 

The captain cries once more, 
"Stand by the wheel five minutes yet 

And we will reach the shore." 

— A nonymous. 

" Down ! down !" cried Mar, "your lances down ! 
Bear back both friend and foe."— Walter Scott. 

" Make way for liberty !" he cried. 
Then ran with arms extended wide, 
As if his dearest friend to clasp ; 
Ten spears he swept within his grasp. 



134 'THE LIGHT OF PERSIA ; OR 

*' Make way for liberty !" he cried; 
Their keen points crossed from side to side ; 
He bowed among them like a tree, 
And thus made way for liberty. 

— -James M 07itg ornery . 

Ring the alarum bell : — Murder and treason 

Banquo, and Donabain ! Malcolm ! awake ! 

Shake off this downy sleep, death's counterfeit, 

And look on death itself ! — Up, up, and see 

The great doom's image ! — Malcolm ! Banquo ! 

As from 3^our graves rise up, and walk like spriets. 

To countenance this honor ! 

O Banquo ! Banquo ! — Shakspeare, 

Concerning Fi.ags. 

A subscriber asks us to define just what is meant by 
the red flag of anarchists and socialists? Now, this 
asking us to define things had better be stopped before 
it makes us trouble — or a liar. We never saw but one 
red flag, and that we helped capture from a band of 
border rufiians, in Kansas, in 1856, and even that was 
not all red, for it had a white half moon in one corner. 
There is nothing more nonsensical or more of a hum- 
bug than the flag business. Unless a flag symbolizes 
an idea and represents a living principle of value to the 
human race it is indeed ' ' nothing but a pole with a rag 
on it." And the worst of it is, the same flagmay reaily 
symbolize the most sacred rights and aspirattons of 
humanity in one generation and the most oppressive 



THE DEATH OF MAMMON. 1 35 

plutocracy or despotism in the next, or the reverse may 
be true. The British flag in America in 1776 repre- 
sented despotism and an attempt to stamp out the lib- 
erties of the American colonies, yet the British flag 
to-day waves over the freest people on earth, even if 
they do have the meaningless figurehead of royalty left. 
What patriotic young American of thirty or more years 
ago has not felt his pulses thrill as he gazed on the 
Star Spangled Banner and thought of IvCxington, 
Bunker Hill and Yorktown, and of the heroic strug- 
gle of his forefathers to make this ' ' The Land of the 
Free and the Home of the Brave?" And yet the same 
flag to-day waves over a great many things that no 
American is proud of, including a presidency bought 
' ' in blocks of five " or at wholesale, with fat fried out of 
protected monopolies. It waves over a senate of mil- 
lionaire plutocrats whose seats were bought in the open 
market ; over Gould, Vanderbilt and Huntington's rail- 
roads and telegraph lines which charge all the trafiic 
will bear and trafiic in legislatures as in stocks or cattle. 
It waves over a land of which one third in value is held 
by foreign nobles and syndicates, who draw a yearly 
revenue of seven hundred million dollars from the toil 
of American laborers — a land which contains more 
tenant farmers by one -third than does the three king- 
doms of England, Scotland and Ireland. The Star 
Spangled Banner now symbolizes a government that 
enters the homes of the poorest widows and sewing 
girls and takes a large part of their scanty earnings in 
taxes on their thread, needles, oil, tea, sugar, salt, 
clothing, blankets, coal; etc., taxing them one-half 



136 THE LIGHT OF PERSIA ; OR 

their scanty savings, even though the widows little 
ones go hungry and the girl is driven to the 
street to escape starvation, while the millionaire 
is taxed but one per cent of his savings, and is allowed 
the use of militia and sheriffs' posses free of cost to 
make his "hands" stand another reduction of wages. 
Perhaps these things are all right (from a modern 
standpoint), but we. hardly think it was intended by the 
men that car^-ied the flag at Ticonderoga and Valley 
Forge, and we doubt if any young American's heart 
swells with pride and rapture as he sees it wave over 
a squad of militia shooting at striking coal miners 
whose wages would not keep the coal mine owner's 
valet in cigars, while the miners' wives are feeding 
their little ones on boiled weeds and the refuse of slop 
barrels. 

We spent five 3'ears, one month and two days during 
the late unpleasantness — the best years of our young 
manhood — in service under the stars and stripes, that 
it might wave over a free people and united countr}^ 
but somehow things don't seem to have turned out just 
as we expected them to, and the lash of necessity seems 
to crack as loud and sting as sharph^ as the lash of the 
overseer formerly did. 

But reall)^, we are not answering our correspond- 
ent's question about red flags, and guess we scarcely 
know how to do so. 

Red flags are used in Spanish bull fights, to make 
the fool bull rush on the cold steel that is to pierce his 
spinal marrow, and national flags are used to make 
the workingmen become food to the powder of other 



THE DEATH OE MAMMON. 1 37 

workingmen with whom they have no quarrel. Were 
there no national flags there could be no rich men's 
wars and poor men's fights. When some big thief 
wants to steal a whole state he yells out : * ' Our flag 
is insulted ! ' ' and straightway thousands of men on 
each side begin shooting and stabbing each other, 
although there is no reason on earth why they should 
not be the best of friends, except that each side has a 
pole with a rag tied to it to " defend." 

But, about that red flag, we can only give second 
hand information, and that our correspondent could 
have gotten without putting us to all this trouble. A 
writer of acknowledged authority says : ' ' The red 
color of our flag signifies that all nations and all man- 
kind are one blood. It symbolizes the common fath- 
erhood of God and Brotherhood of Man, hence is the 
flag of peace and fraternity, and once it is universally 
adopted wars will become impossible, for no man will 
fire on his own flag — the flag of all Humanity, the flag 
of peace and universal brotherhood." 

All this sounds very pretty and Christ-like, but such 
a flag will never be popular with generals, commissa- 
ries, quartermasters, colonels, majors, captains, chap- 
lains, shoddy contractors, "statesmen" politicians, 
thieves, bummers, pirates, gamblers, speculators, etc., 
and these are the fellows that run things. No, the 
red flag might do very well in Heaven but its no 
good for this practical earth. — W. H. T. Wakefield, 
in The Tope ka Jeff ersonian. 



138 THE LIGHT OF PERSIA ; OR 

" Is it any wonder that the world is an intellectual 
poor-house when it is the policy of all the so-called 
leaders of the human race both in religion and secular 
thought, to kill every new idea before it is fairly born ? 
Happily truth cannot be suppressed, otherwise our 
present rulers, including majorities, would run the 
world back to animalism by breeding in and in. 

. . . . We are taught with our drawing con- 
sciousness that patriotism is one of the noble instincts 
of the mind. We are taught that we should love 
America and Americans better than any other land or 
people. Ah, yes. If it were not for that cry : " For 
God and Native I^and ' ' how would despots and plu- 
tocrats maintain their sway. It is to the interest of 
kings that the people of different nations should hate 
each other. It is to the interest of manufacturers that 
workmen of different lands should look upon each 
other as competing rivals. Patriotism — one of the 
meanest emotions of which man is capable — what is it 
but the repression of love between men which if pat- 
riotism could be broken down would make of the 
world one people. Cosmopolitanism is better than 
patriotism. . . . How can the world be rich in 
love as long as men love a flag better than they lo\'e a 
fellow ; as long as they arm themsehes to fight against 
each other ; as long as they separate themselves by 
title and genealogical tables and bank account?" — 
Hu^h O. Peiitecost, in October Twentieth Century. 



AGITATE 



THE DEATH OF MAMMON. 1 39 

THE TREE OF STATE. 

" The people are the roots of the State ; if the roots 
are flourishing the State will endure." — Chinese 
Maxim. 

"The relations of structure are actually such, that, 
by the help of a central regulative system, each organ 
is supplied with blood in proportion to the work it 
does. ' ' — Herbert Spencer. 

' ' So distribution should undo excess 
And each man have enough." — Ki7ig Lear. 

"Is not a dollar a day enough to buy bread? 
Water costs nothing, and a man who cannot live on 
bread and water is not fit to live." — H. W. Beecher. 

' * The time is near when they (the banks) will feel 
themselves compelled to act strongl}^ ; meanwhile a 
very good thing has been done ; the machinery is now 
furnished by which, in any emergency, the financial 
corporations of the east can act together at a single 
day's notice with such power that no congress can 
overcome or resist their decision." — The New York 
Tribu7ie. 

Speaking of capitalists, lyawrence Gronlund says : 
" These are the offspring of the 'Let Alone' policy.'^ — 
Laissez-faire. 

" Eet alone" — leave the upright at the mercy of the 
cunning ; leave the ignorant to teach themselves ; 



140 THE LIGHT OF PERSIA ; OR 

leave every one who profits by a corrupt system to 
make the most for himself ; let labor remain something 
wholesale out of which fortunes are made and which 
during that process yields such and such a percentage 
of Misery and Sin — what a grand "principle!" By 
adopting it for its guiding-star our society has 
achieved — Anarchy. 

Here is the proof: "The strongest of this genera- 
tion wants a dictator. I say come on with your 
schemes of confiscation and forced loans and graduated 
income tax and irredeemable currenc}^ under universal 
suffrage, and if you are sufficiently frank in proclaim- 
ing the doctrines of your ringleaders, then under mili- 
tary necessity and even here in the United States we 
must get rid of universal suffrage, and we shall. 
Rather than allow these things we will have one of the 
fircest of civil wars." — The Rev. Joseph Cook. 

' 'We need a strong government ; the wealth of the 
country demands it. Without capital and capitalists 
our government would not be worth a fig. The capi- 
tal of the country demands protection. Its rights are 
as sacred as the rights of the paupers who are contin- 
ually prating of the encroachments of capital and 

against centralization The wealth of the 

country has to bear the burden of government, and it 
should control it, there will be no political change of 
administration. ... To avert fearful bloodshed 
a strong central government should be established as 
soon as possible." — The Organ of the Late Seriato/ 
Sharon, the Nevada Chronicle. 



THE DEATH OF MAMMON. 141 

The New York Herald, "with a frankness and 
sagacity quite commendable, said : ' ' Our people please 
themselves with the fancy that they are free, because 
the}^ have the right to meddle a little with politics 
now and then, in conventions, in legislature and simi- 
lar places ; they chatter and twaddle and scream like 
so many crows and jays over the eternal principles of 
freedom as secured in the political fabric. Meanwhile 
the great economical facts of life, the facts that are and 
always were the really shaping and controlling forces 
in the political destinies of a people sweep rapidly and 
certainly forward, on lines that indicate the will and 
movement of a despotic spirit. In that fnovemejtt a 
great collisio7i with the popular will is in p7^eparationy 

"Behold ! Now I, too, have my twenty thousandth 
part of a Talker in our National Palaver. What 
a notion of Liberty !" — Carlyle. 

' ' The Spartans made money of iron. Congress has 
exercised nearly the same prerogative. The gold value 
of the nickel five cent piece is exactly four-sevenths 
of one cent ; and the government has made a profit to 
this date of four million six hundred and eighteen 
thousand dollars by this coinage. I have heard these 
pieces called "tokens." They are "tokens," just as 
the silver dollar or do^ible eagle 2ire "tokens," They 
are convertible into any other lawful monej^ A nickel 
worth four- sevenths of one cent will purchase five 
cents worth of any commodity just as certainly and 
cheaply as five cents worth of gold, because the nation 



142 THE LIGHT OF PERSIA ; OR 

has so decreed. The same is true of our subsidiary 
silver coinage, which has been alloyed to such an ex- 
tent that the country is nearly six million dollars richer 
by the seigniorage." — Extract fjvm a Speech Delivered 
in the U. S. Senate, February 75, iSjS, by John J. In- 
galls of Kansas. 

In a speech recently delivered in Topeka the Hon. 
David Ovefmyer said : 

* ' It would require a volume to detail the long list of 
outrages committed against these defendants (the An- 
archists) by this Judge (Gary) upon the so-called trial. 
His monstrous mocking of everything righteous, just 
and lawful ; his total, open and conscious disregard of 
law stands without a parallel in American history. 
Incredible as it may appear, it is now very generally 
believed that the jurors were paid a very large sum 
each for the conviction of these men by the citizens of 
Chicago. 

On August 20, 1877, the following appeared in the 
Chicago Tribune over the signature of one E. A. Mul- 
ford. ' ' The long agony is over, law has triumphed. 
Anarchy is defeated. The conspirators have been 
promptly convicted, let them be as promptly pun- 
ished. The twelve good men and true, whose hon- 
esty and fearlessness made a conviction possible should 
not be forgotten. They have performed their un- 
pleasant dut}^ without flinching. Let them be gener- 
ously remembered — raise a fund, say $100,000, to be 
presented with the thanks of a grateful people. A 



THE DEATH OF MAMMON. 143 

certain N. B. Ream, also proposed to head the list 
with $500. 

'Judge Gary, in discharging the jury, said, among 
other things.' "It does not become me to say any 
thing in regard to the case you have tried, or the ver- 
dict you have rendered, but as men compulsorily serv- 
ing as jurors, as you have done, you deserve some 
recognition of the services you have performed, be- 
sides the meagre compensation you are to receive. 
You are discharged from further attendance upon this 
court. I understand that some carriages are in at- 
tendance to convey you from this place." "Ah, 
indeed ; here we have it. Capital ready to pay for the 
verdict, and the judge who sat at the trial fully aware 
of the fact." " Impossible as it may appear, this out- 
rage upon human rights, this mockery of justice, was 
sustained and upheld by the Supreme court of Illinois 
in an opinion that will stand, while it does stand, as a 
monument of judicial falsehood, corruption, degrada- 
tion and despotism, a source of humiliation and sor- 
row to every true lawyer, and a solemn warning to the 
people to put no man upon the bench who is not in 
sympathy with them in their never-ending struggle 
with power. The supreme court of the United States 
having held that it had no jurisdiction in the case, 
and General Butler before that court having pro- 
nounced the Chicago trial anarchy itself, on the nth 
of November, 1887, the four remained under sentence 
of death were judicially assassinated and deliberately 
murdered under the form of law. The horrible deed 
cast a gloom over the working people of the whole 



144 I'HE LIGHT OF PERSIA ; OR 

land and of the whole world. To millions of hearts it 
brought doubt as to man's attainment to better con- 
ditions. To thousands it brought despair, and to 
thousands of others a feeling that it was their solemn 
duty to resist to any extremity the further prostitution 

of the law in the name of the law I refer 

to these matters to show you that as matters stand, 
your proposed agitation for a reduction of the hours of 
labor may find itself limited by the lawless interfer- 
ence of those in authority. What has happened in 
the past may happen again, if you will permit it. If 
you desire to better the condition of people by agita- 
tion, the first step is to assure j^ourself that you will 
not be denied the right to agitate ; to secure bej^ond 
a peradventure the uninterrupted exercise of your con- 
stitutional right of peaceful assemblage, free speech 
and free press ; yea, free as the winds of heaven, for 
less than that is not freedom. This you cannot expect 
while public opinion condemns to life imprisonment 
men whose only offence was that they contended for 
better conditions for the people. The same public 
opinion which condemns them will condemn you if the 
necessities of organized capital require it. While they 
remain in prison you will remain in chains. Whether 
you agree with their views or not, your cause is their 
cause and their cause is your cause. They are not im- 
prisoned for crime ; they are imprisoned for opinion's 
sake — for having dared to assail the capitalistic pluto- 
cratic despotism which now holds this whole country 
in its grasp, and which will never release its grasp 
until compelled to do so. 



THE DEATH OF MAMMON. 145 

Until a public sentiment is formed sufficiently potent 
to open wide the iron door of the Joliet prison and bid 
Schwab, Fielden and Neebe go free, 3'^ou need not ex- 
pect but little improvement in your condition, because 
the fundamental condition of improvement will be 
wanting, viz, : a feeling of absolute freedom to say 
what you please respecting questions of capital and 
labor. When that happy day shall come ; when the 
accursed conspiracy laws shall be swept away ; when 
organized bands of lawless murderers shall no longer 
be tolerated ; when the cities are relieved of the des- 
potism of a state appointed police, and permitted to 
exercise the great American right of local self-govern- 
ment ; when the people shall have learned that the 
state and the law are merely an agency and not a 
guardianship, much less a fetish to be worshipped ; 
when public opinion will no longer endure privileged 
classes and persons ; when every man mayfreely vote 
and speak as he pleases concerning any matter or 
man, without the fear that his views will be construed 
into sedition, treason and murder, then, and not till 
then, may we look forward with bright anticipations to 
that golden age which seers have described and proph- 
ets have foretold." — H071. David Overmyer. 



AGITATE ! 



146 THE LIGHT OF PERSIA ; OR 

THE GROOMING OF THE GIANT. 

** Moreover, the profit of the earth is for 
A1.1.." — Bible. 

** Woe unto him that useth his neighbor's service 
without wages, and giveth him nought for his work.— 
Bible. 

*' Be careful, sirs ! how you judge God's revolutions 
as the product of man's invention." — Oliver Cromwell. 

*'The Revolution is the work of the Unknown. 
Call it good or bad, as you yearn toward the Future 
or the Past." — Victor Hugo. 

*' Will not one French Revolution suffice, or must 
there be two ? There will be two if needed ; there 
will be twenty if needed ; there wiil be just as many 
as needed. " — Carlyle. 

"It is not to die, or even to die of hunger that 
makes a man wretched ; many men have died ; all men 
must die. But it is to live miserable we know not 
why ; to work sore and yet gain nothing ; to be heart- 
worn, weary, yet isolated, unrelated, girt in with a 
cold universal Laissez-faire.^^ — Carlyle. 

' ' We all can see that there are all over our country 
energies which can find no employment, or, at all 
events, minds which are cruell}^ compressed into du- 
ties far too narrow, and, on the other hand, work 



THE DEATH OF MAMMON. 147 

which remains undone for want of adequate energies, 
because no systematic attempt has yet been made to 
estimate the real needs of the social organism and to 
distribute its forces in accordance with them. — There 
is no organic adjustment anywhere." — The " Value of 
Lifer 

' * Man has it in his power by his voluntary actions 
to aid the intentions of Providence, but to learn these 
intentions he must consider what tends to promote the 
general good."— ^. 6". Mill. 

'' Mankind, without any common bond, any unity of 
aim, bent upon happiness, has sought each and all to 
tread their own paths, little heeding if they trample 
upon the bodies of their ' brothers' in name, enemies 
in fact. This is the state of things we are in to-day." 
— Mazziyii. 

" Competition gluts our markets, enables the rich to 
take advantage of the necessities of the poor, makes 
each man snatch the bread out of his neighbor's mouth, 
converts a nation of heathen into a mass of hostile, 
isolated units, and finally involves capitalists and la- 
borers in one common ruin." — Gregg. 

" The citizens of a large nation, industrially organ- 
ized, have reached their possible ideal of happiness, 
when the producing, distributing and other activities 
are such that each citizen finds in them a place for all 



148 THE LIGHT OF PERSIA; OR 

energies and aptitudes, while he obtains the means of 
satisfying all his desires.'' — Herbert Spencer. 

"In 1 8 60 the agricultural population of the United 
States were two-thirds owners and one-third tenants 
of the land. In 1880 they were one-third owners and 
two-thirds tenants. In twenty years one -third of the 
tillers of the soil had been disinherited and turned out 
of their possessions to become tenants of the land 
they once owned, or join the mighty and daily aug- 
menting army of wage laborers, who throng all the 
avenues of life and struggle with each other in a fierce 
competition for employment." — Ho7i. David Overmyer. 

On the 14th of February, 1879, in the United States 
Senate, John J. Ingalls said: ** We cannot disguise 
the truth that we are on tbe verge of an impending 
revolution. Old issues are dead. The people are 
arra3ang themselves on one side or the other of a por- 
tentous contest. On one side capital, formidably en- 
trenched in privilege, arrogant from continual tri- 
umph, conservative, tenacous of old theories, demand- 
ing new concessions, enriched by domestic levy and 
foreign commerce, and struggling to adjust all values 
to its standard. On the other side is labor, asking for 
employment, striving to develop domestic industries, 
battling with the forces of nature and subduing the 
wilderness. I^abor starving and sullen in the cities, 
resolutely determined to overthrow a system under 
which the rich are growing richer and the poor poorer, 
a system which gives to a Vanderbilt wealth beyond 



1"HE DE^ATH OF MAMMON. 1 49 

the dreams of avarice, and condemns the poor to a 
poverty which has no refuge from starvation but the 
grave. Our demands for justice have been met with 
indifference and disdain ; the laborers of the country 
asking for employment are treated like impudent men- 
dicants begging for bread." 

"No labor agitator, nay, not even the condemned 
anarchists, ever arraigned capitalistic despotism in 
stronger terms than did Mr. Ingalls. All that he said 
was then true, and it is all true now, with the horrors 
which he described increased in a ten-fold ratio, and 
with the alternative not far ahead of a prompt return 
to reason and right or the bloodiest revolution recorded 
in history. And, yet, the senator is strangely silent 
upon this subject. The same power which holds labor 
bound hand and foot has entirely silenced this once 
bold and potent advocate of the people's cause. Dire 
distress and gaunt staivation now stalk through the 
land like the wierd precursor of desolation. The eye, 
that ten years ago, could see the cause of their coming 
is now blind to their presence. The voice that could 
then proclaim the approaching danger, now awed into 
silence, is heard no more. What wonder, then, that 
those who labor for the men who wield this mighty 
power are obliged to call upon others than their em- 
ployers to redress their grievances, right their wrongs 
and mete out justice to them? What wonder that 
they must make their humble appeal to the public at 
large to grant them through law, a slight reduction of 
their hours of toil?" — Ho7i. David Overmyer. 



150 THE LIGHT OF PERSIA ; OR 

'•Most of the Americans remember the rising of 
the workingmen in July, 1877. That rising was to 
all Socialists, also to those who held aloof from it, a 
most promising sign. The first revolt of American 
white slaves against their task-master. That it was 
accompanied by excesses by the most neglected stra- 
tum of society was unfortunate but unavoidable. 
This stratum is just the worst heritage which capital- 
ism leaves on our hands. In a very short time we 
shall have another series of years of **hard times." 
. We expect another revolt then, more seri- 
ous than the first. That most Hkely will also be sur- 
pressed with comparative ease. A few more years 
elapse. Another "crisis," yet more severe, shows its 
hideous head. The screws of distress are turned yet 
more on the wage-workers. Another most serious 
revolt. Possibly powder and shot will suppress that, 
too. 

But in the fullness of time we shall have a labor re- 
volt that will not be put down. Then is the time for 
energetic Socialist minority to exert its influence. 
There is nothing that the people in such a crisis hail 
more than leaders, nothing they hunger and thirst 
more after than clear-cut, definite solutions. All the 
horrors of the French Revolution and the sad fact that 
Napoleon the I. became a necessity were due to the 
circumstances that the revolution had no leaders. We 
do not mean to say that that revolution was a failure, 
for it did accomplish every one of its objects: the 
abolition of privileges, the dispossession of the land- 
owners and free competition, but the price paid was 



THE DEATH OF MAMMON. 15 1 

Exorbitant. In our civil war, on the other hand, it 
was the abohtionists that successfully assumed the 
leadership, and probably exerted all the influence to 
which they were entitled. 

That, the Socialist minority must do when the crisis 
comes, and make out of a revolt — another revolution. 

Be confident the people will follow. In such times 
men become awake, shake off nightmares ; the expe- 
rience of years is crowded into hours. Novelties, 
which at sight inspire dread, become in a few days 
familiar, then endurable, then attractive." — The Co- 
operative Commonwealth. 

"Nay, must we not rather confess, that that un- 
lovely creature, the habitual office-seeker, is as natural 
a product of our political and social conditions as the 
scrub-oak is of the soil,, when it has been laid waste 
by the removal of the primeval forest?" — Richard 
Grant White, N. A. Review, July 1882. 

' ' I believe that party, instead of being a machinery 
necessary to the existence of free government, is its 
most dangerous foe, and that in order to get anything 
which really deserves the name of republican govern- 
ment, we must destroy party altogether. — A True Re- 
public, by Albert Stickney. 

' ' I think the time has come when the leaders of our 
political parties need to be taught that however im- 
portant agencies these parties may be in the nation, 
they are only agencies. The}^ are nothing more. 



152 THE IJGHT OF PERSIA ; OR 

They are the servants, not the masters, of honest men. 
The nation is our master, the right is our master. 
God is our master, and conventions and parties are 
only the instruments whereby we serve the nation for 
the ends of right and truth. If they prove fit instru- 
ments, we keep them in use. If they fail us, we dis- 
card them. No matter how long and well they may 
have served us — the servant is not above his lord — 
and if a political party called into being to gain a 
righteous end, and for a time fulfilling its mission 
faithfully, then becomes a minister of unrighteousness, 
its high achievements in the past, however glorious, 
give it no more claim for employment in the future 
than do the safe and speedy voyages which a ship has 
made warrant us in sending it richly freighted again 
upon a stormy sea when we find its timbers rotten and 
itself no longer able to stand a storm." — Preside^it See- 
ley. 

" The most wealthy must govern in every state, 
and will, regardless of any attempt to deprive them of 
that right." — Richmond ( Va.^ Whig. 

"'We need a strong central government ; the wealth 
of the country has to bear the burdens of the govern- 
ment and shall control it." — Senator Sharoji. 

Aye ! and this is the way they bear it. 



THE DEATH OF MAMMON. 1 53 

Revenue Reeorm. 



Frank P. Crandon, Illinois State Revenue Com- 
missioner, Chicago. 

Section I of Article IX, of the Constitution of Illi- 
nois, declares : 

«l^ %3jf %1a vL* v1> ^f 

^^ ^^ >pt >p» ^T* *|^ 

* ' The General Assembly shall provide such revenues 
as may be needful by levying a tax, by valuation, so 
that every person and corporation shall pay a tax in 
proportion to the value of his, her, or its property — 
such value to be ascertained by some person or persons 
to be elected or appointed in such manner as the Gen- 
eral Assembly shall direct, and not otherwise." 
* * * * 

Valuation for 

Kinds of Property. Valuation for the State of 

Cook County. Illinois. 
Gold and silver plate and plated 

ware $14,815 | 59.521 

Diamonds and jewelry 16,765 49,o73 

Franchises 52,080 90-334 

Moneys of bank, banker or 

broker 654,350 2,853,362 

Creditsof bank, banker or broker 67,800 1,056,900 

Bonds and stocks 112,285 679,563 

These items are selected as illustrative of all per- 
sonal property assessments, and the figures suggest 
all the comment that is required." — The Statesman, 
February, 188 g. 



154 I'HE LIGHT OF PERSIA ; OR 

" It is astounding, yea startling, the extent to whicfi 
the faith prevails in money circles in New York that 
we ought to have a king." — New York Tribune, in 
1874. 

" If I could be as fly as a flea ; 

With an auger like a mosquito, 
I'd tap the " Grant boom" just at the flume 

And Hayes the Dictator with a veto. 

—G. P. M. in 1878. 

" We have arranged the programme for both parties, 
and are willing the people should exercise their choice 
of men." — -James Buell, Secretary National Bankers 
Ass^n. 

"It is the business of governments to protect the 
interests of business men, and they in turn will look 
out for the poor." — President Gar/ietct. 

' ' The only way we can control the working man is 
to make him eat up to-day what he earns to-morrow." 
— To?fi Scott. 

' ' He (the tramp) has no right but that which so- 
ciety may see fit of its grace to bestow upon him. He 
has no more rights than the sow that wallows in the 
gutter, or the lost dogs, that hover around the city 
square . ' ' — Scribblers Monthly. 

" It is time the Jeffersonian Declaration was laid on 
the shelf.— W^. W, Guthrie. 



THE DEATH OF MAMMON. 1 55 

* * Hand grenades should be thrown among those 
who are striking to obtain higher wages, as, by such 
treatment they would be taught a lesson, and other 
strikers would take warning by their fate." — Chicago 
Times. 

When the lion or the tiger or any other beast of prey ; 
Shows his ' ivorys' as a warning of his instinct thus 

to slay — 
Do his keepers fuss and pat him and coddle him to 

bed; 
Or do they take a red hot poker and punch his craven 

head???— 6^. P. M. 

"The active cause of human development is found 
in the democratic spirit that prompts organized re- 
sistance to encroachments upon the natural rights 
and acquired privileges of the great body of the peo- 
ple. The counteracting force of tyranny by its usur- 
pations compels defensive resistance, and finally ag- 
gressive warfare. The progress of the manual la- 
borersr who were slaves, then serfs, and are now 
termed freemen, is marked by the associated efforts of 
members of their class, and by the opposition of those 
antagonistic interests, the employers; the unem- 
ployed, the cultured, the comfortable, and those who 
govern or rule the political society called government. 
Whatever the motive of an association, the methods 
must partake largely of those of their antagonists. 

Freemen combine, tyrants conspire. The combi- 
nation of freemen to overthrow tyranny may be forced 



156 THE LIGHT OF PERSIA ; OR 

to work secretly, but such secrecy is not a conspiracy ; 
it is a confession of tyrannical power. The power of 
discharge, which means banishment or starvation, may 
be met with the freeman's power to strike, even to the 
enforced bankruptcy of the antagonist. Those who 
narrow their conception of a truth by adhering to the 
literal dictionary definition of a word, and whose con- 
ception of the meaning of words and benefits of cus- 
toms are founded upon past theories, confuse them- 
selves and those with whom they have influence, when 
they apply the word conspiracy to the associated efforts 
of men who seek greater opportunities of life, liberty 
and the pursuit of happiness." — George E. McNeil, m 
the December number of The Arena, 

An Advancing Cause. 

The successful termination of the London dockmen's 
strike and a number of other minor struggles for an 
increase of wages which have attracted less attention 
than their importance demands, owing to the concen- 
tration of public attention on the principal conflict, in- 
dicates a wonderful advance in English public senti- 
ment in relation to the labor question. It is about the 
first important English strike in which public opinion 
has ranged itself clearly and unmistakably on the side 
of labor. Hitherto when an}^ considerable number of 
wage slaves revolted against the harsh and oppressive 
conditions of their existence with the object of miti- 
gating in ever so small a degree the evils of their lot, 
the English press, representing the well-to-do and 



THE DEATH OF MAMMON. 1 57 

conventionally respectable element, has, as a matter of 
course, taken the part of capitalism. In place of ex- 
pressing sympathy with the toilers they have treated 
them to hypocritical dissertations as to the exceeding 
folly of strikes and the right of the capitalist to pur- 
chase his labor in the cheapest market. It has been 
the fashion to treat every sign of discontent among 
workers as the result of the teachings of " agitators," 
and to assume that unless told of their wrongs by 
outsiders such a thing as demanding an increase of 
pay or a shortening of hours would never enter into 
the heads of workingmen. The influence of the church 
as well as that of the press, has also with almost un- 
varying uniformity been thrown into the scale against 
labor struggling for its rights. Strikers have been 
exhorted to patience and submission here in the hope 
that the joys of another world may prove a recom- 
pense for their sufferings in this, and the sternest de- 
nunciations of the pulpit have been directed, not 
against oppression, but against those who ventured 
to aid the oppressed. 

The vast change which has come over English pub- 
lic sentiment within a very short period can be meas- 
ured by the contrast between the position assumed by 
the press and the pulpit of to-day in regard to the 
dock-laborers' strike and their former treatment of 
such movements. No more phenomenal and radical 
alteration in popular opinion could well bell be imag- 
ined than that which has come about in the English 
way of looking at social questions. Almost the entire 
press was loud in its expressions of sympathy with the 



158 THE LIGHT OF PERSIA; OR 

strikers. The customary platitudes about the right of 
capitalism to do as it pleases with its own and the im- 
possibility of increasing wages, inasmuch as the 
"wages fund" was insufficient, were conspicuously 
absent. All which a strongly expressed and all but 
unanimous expression of public sentiment in favor of 
granting the modest demands of the strikes could do 
to compel the surrender of the monopolies was done 
by the newspaper press. A still greater surprise if 
possible was the favorable attitude of the various re- 
ligious bodies. The action taken by the venerable 
Manning as a mediator between the parties, to which 
is largely due the ultimate success of the movement, 
and the active support of many religious organiza- 
tions, whose efforts in providing food for the strikers 
and their families prevented much suffering and prob- 
ably many deaths, are signs of an awakening to the 
wrong and injustice of the present social system, as 
gratifying as unexpected. The work of the social re- 
formers who for generations have toiled, hoping against 
hope, in the endeavor to arouse the masses to a deter- 
mination to assert their rights, is at last bearing fruit. 
The social revolution moves very slowl}" in conserva- 
tive England, but it does move, and the patient incul- 
cation of the great truth of the right of the worker to 
the wealth he creates seems at last to have thoroughly 
leavened public opinion. One very powerful factor in 
creating this remarkable change of feeling has cer- 
tainly been the land agitation and the struggle for 
Irish Home Rule. The issue between a handful of 
British and Irish landlords and the disinherited masses 



THE DEATH OF MAMMON. 159 

of the people having got into politics, the broad ques- 
tion of the general social condition of the workers and 
the causes of their enslavement has been forced upon 
public attention. In place of the discussion of empty, 
high-sounding abstractions and issues having no prac- 
tical bearing upon the welfare of the people, the amelio- 
ration of the lot of the poor and the problem of the 
distribution of wealth have presented themselves as 
living, tangible questions. 

It is never well to expect too great things in the 
way of a change of public feeling. Doubtless there 
were special and local causes why the lyondon press, 
usually so unfair and malignant in its treatment of 
labor matters, found itself ranged for the first time 
against a particularly obnoxious monopoly. The re- 
actionary forces may be expected to reassert them- 
selves before long and prevent any such pronounced 
departure from the customary bourgeois habit of 
thought, as might be inferred, from the altogether ex- 
ceptional action of the exponents of public opinion 
during the late critical period. But making every 
allowance on this score, labor reformers have occasion 
for congratulation over the marked advance of our 
cause in Great Britain as evidenced by the influences 
which enabled the London dockmen to win their 
strike." — Journal United Labor, October j, i88g. 



AGITATE! 



l6o THE LIGHT OF PERSIA ; OR 

THE LIGHT OF PERSIA. 

"Faith builds a bridge across the gulf of death.'* 

— You7ig. 

' ' Heaven from all creatures hides the book of fate, 
All but the page prescribed their present state." 

—Pope. 

" There are whole veins of diamonds in thine eyes, 
Might furnish crowns for all the queens of earth. 

— Bailey. 

The soul's dark cottage, battered and decayed, 
Lets in new light through chinks that Time has made. ' ' 

— Waller. 

" The light of the will hovering close to the sight ; 
Is a most potent force when wielded for right." 

—Joel, 

* ' Yet 7ione but one the scepter long did sway 
Whose conquering name endures until this day." 

— Wallace, 

' ' Zeal and duty are not slow. 
But on occasion's forelock watchful wait." 

— Milton, 

" To scatter plent}- o'er a smiling land. 
And read their history in a nation's eyes." 

— Gray, 



THE DEATH OF MAMMON. l6l 

**Let our frail thoughts dally with false surmise." 

— Milton. 



He conquers all with mildly beaming eyes." 

— Love. 



' ' I scarcely understand my own intent ; 

But silk- worn like, so long within have wrought, 

That I am lost in my own web of thought." 

— Dry den. 

** There's a divinity that shapes our ends, 
Rough hew them as we will." 

— Shakespeare. 

" 'Tis with our judgments as our watches : none 
Are just alike, yet each believes his own." 

—Pope. 

•'One sally of a hero's soul. 
Does all the military art control. 

— Dry den. 

"Whose game was empires, and whose stakes were 

thrones, 
Whose table earth, whose dice were human bones." 

— Byron. 

" He cast off his friends as a huntsman his pack. 
For he knew when he wished he could whistle them 
back . " — Goldsmith . 



l62 THE LIGHT OF PERSIA ; OR 

" Sired of ye Sun and Air, 
Foal'd in ye angle of Might ! 

Caught in descent ; was ye glare 
Ye liquified Devil of light." — Cibler. 

' And "Silence," like a poultice, comes 
To heal the blows of sound." — Hohnes, 

I wake, emerging from a sea of dreams 

Tumultuous, where my wreck' d, desponding thought 

From wave to wave of fancied misery 

At random drove, her helm of reason." — Youjig. 

Self is the medium least refined of all. 
Through which opinion's searching beams can fall; 
And, pausing there, the clearest, steadiest ray 
Will tinge its light, and turn its line astray." 

— Moore, 

' ' Let come what will, I mean to bear it out, 
And either live with glorious victory, 
Or die with fame, renowned for chivalry. 
He is not worthy of the honey-comb, 
That shuns the hive because the bees have stung." 

— Shakespeare. 

"It \_Vrir\ can be stored in a small wand, which 
rests in the palm, and, when skillfully wielded, can 
rend rocks, remove any natural obstacles, scatter the 
strongest fortress and make the weak a perfect match 



THE DEATH OF MAMMON. 163 

for any combination of number, skill and discipline." 
— The Coming Race: Bulwer. 

' ' He stood, and measured the earth ; he beheld and 
drove asunder the nations ; and the everlasting moun- 
tains were scattered, the perpetual hills did bow ; His 
ways are everlasting." — Bible. 

' * What if this ' Vril' is but a poetic anticipation of 
the civilizing power ot that real, energetic substance 
which we call — dy^imnite P^ — The Co-operative Com- 
monwealth. 

' * From hill to hill the mandate flew, 
From lake to lake the tempest grew, 

With waking swell. 
Till proud oppression crouched for shame. 
And Austria' s haughtiness grew tame ; 
And Freedom's watchward was the name 

Of William Tell." — Aftonymous. 

' ' Think you that a drop of water, which to the 
vulgar eye is but a drop of water, loses everything to 
the eye of the ph3'sicist, who knows that its elements 
are held together b}^ a force which, if suddenly liber- 
ated, would produce a flash of lightning? — Herbert 
Spencer. 

*' A laborer earning $1.00 a day — a good deal more 
than the average wage — that he works steadily along, 
that he never loses a day's work, that he is never sick, 



164 THE LIGHT OF PERSIA ; OR 

that he lives like a Chinese, and thus is able to save 
up half of his wages, $1.00 a day. It will take him 
more than 3,000 — three thousand — years to accumu- 
late a million !" — The Co-operative Covimonwealth, Lov- 
eir s Library^ Number i^op6. 

The Constitution reserves to itself the right of emi- 
nent domain : "No man is in law the absolute owner 

of lands The State is thus fully entitled 

to take charge of all instruments of Labor and Pro- 
duction, and to say that all social activities shall be 
carried on in a perfectly different manner. Undoubt- 
edly the whole fleecing class will interpose their so- 
called "vested rights." That is to say because the 
State for a long time tacitly allowed a certain class to 
divide the common stock of social advantages among 
themselves and appropriate it to their own individual 
benefit, therefore the State is estopped, they say, from 
ever recovering it. And not alone will they claim un- 
disturbed possession of what they have, but also the 
right to use it in the future as they have in the past ; 
that is, they will claim a "vested right" to fleece the 
masses to all eternity. 

But such a protest will be just as vain as was that 
of the Pope against the loss of his temporal sover- 
eignty. The theory of " vested rights" never applies 
when a revolution has taken place ; when the whole 
structure of society is changed. The tail of a tadpole 
that is developing into a frog may protest as much as 
it pleases ; nature heeds it not. And when the frog is 



I'HE DEATiH OF MAMMON. 1 65 

an accomplished fact, there is no tail to protest." — 
The Co-operative Co77imonwealth. 

The Grkat Reading Strike. 



Congressmen Interviewed on the Subject. 

Last week we mentioned that the New York Herald 
had placed our American congressmen on record re- 
specting the great Reading mine and railroad strike, 
which had reduced to actual suffering a million of peo- 
ple, more or less ; and had brought discomfort, incon- 
venience and loss to thirty millions more in the North- 
ern States. 

The published interviews of congressmen fill over 
six columns of closely printed matter in the Daily 
Herald of January 1 1 . We have room for only a few 
specimens. We quote from the Herald as follows : 

Mr. Allen (rep.), of Michigan. — I believe in the 
rights of organized labor as the only solution of the 
labor problem. They have succeeded in righting 
many wrongs, and laborers have the same right to 
combine as the railroads. 

Mr. Anderson (rep.), of Kansas. — As an abstract 
proposition my opinion is that the men would not have 
struck unless they had some imperative reason for it. 
The corporation has the power to oppress them in many 
ways, and will exercise it solely with a view to mak- 
ing money for the company, first in lower wages paid 
to the men, and second in stock speculation, depress- 
ing the securities of the road for the purpose of un- 



i66 The lic^ht of persia ; or 

loading at high figures and purchasing at low figures* 
My sympathies are with the men. 

Mr. Ba3'ne (rep.), of Pennsylvania. — So far as I 
have been able to get at the facts of the case, they 
lead me to think the men are right in demanding 
higher wages. I think they ought to be better paid. 

Mr. Brumm (rep.), of Pennsylvania, is the Repre- 
sentative of the district in which the strike is on. His 
opinion is therefore given in full. He said ; The men 
are undoubtedly in the right. When the agreement 
with the miners expired, January i, the price of coal 
was much higher than when the agreement was made. 
Notwithstanding this fact the Reading attempted to 
reduce the wages of its miners, and this reduction is 
what the miners are resisting. In the region affected 
by the scale the $2.50 basis prevails, with an increase 
of 2 1 cents per ton for ever}^ three cents advance in 
the price of coal. From what I have heard from reli- 
able men I think the whole thing is a stock jobbing 
operation. I have been credibly informed that many 
of the stock holders unloaded their stock when it had 
reached a high figure. This is evidence to me that 
they knew this trouble was coming. 

The miners' strike, however, should not be con- 
founded with that of the railroad men. In the first 
instance I think the railroad men were wrong, and they 
so acknowledged it and returned to work. But Swei- 
gard, who is the chief bulldog of the oppression, re- 
pudiated his agreement and refused to re-instate some 
of the men. In this, I think, the railroad company 
was wrong. This whole thing is an attempt on the 



THE DEATH OF MAMMON. 1 67 

part of the Reading company to crush out organized 
labor. While I cannot prophesy as to the outcome, I 
have hopes that the men will be successful. 

Mr. T. J. Campbell (dem.), of New York.— If the 
railway company has made an agreement with a body 
of honorable men, which I understand to be the case 
as between them and their employes, they should be 
compelled to carry it out. 

Mr. Guenther (rep.) of Wisconsin. — As I under- 
stand it, the railroad company is trying to crush out 
the Knights of Labor. I do not think they have any 
right to make war on a labor organization at the ex- 
pense of the public who have to buy coal. 

Mr. Hall (dem.), of Pennsylvania. — In my own ex- 
perience with somewhat similar employes, although we 
have sometimes disagreed, I have never found them 
unreasonable when they were fairly brought to see the 
facts in the case. I think if the railroad company 
would treat their men frankly and in a spirit which 
would show that they were not seeking to take unfair 
advantages, the strike would soon be settled. Yet I 
would not sa}^ there are not grievances on both sides. 
There usually are. 

Mr. Hogg (dem.), of West Virginia. — My sympa- 
thies are with the laboring men, when they are right, 
as they usually are. 

Mr. Landes (dem.), of Illinois. — I am satisfied the 
employes have not been properly compensated for their 
labor. 

Mr. Hagan (dem.), of Louisiana. — The blame rests 
with the party denying the right to a conference. The 



1 68 THE LIGHT OF PERSIA ; OR 

workingmen are not paid sufficiently in proportion to 
the profits of their employers. 

Mr. Laird (rep.), of Nebraska. — I would not attempt 
to speak off-hand of the merits of the dispute, but if 
congressional interference through the tariff has any 
terrors for our friends in Pennsylvania they had better 
look out. We may put the coal operators of Canada 
and Wales at work as a remedy for these frequent dis- 
turbances, which amount to public calamities to man}- 
communities. Why, as far away as Nebraska, I hear, 
although I hope it is not true, this fight has almost 
doubled the price of coal, and unless we can supplj^ 
ourselves from Trinidad, Colorado, we are threatened 
wuth coal famine in midwinter. It is a terrible thing 
that thousands of people should hold their tenure of 
comfortable life at the mercy of the caprice or cupidity 
of any set of men. Such conditions invite desperate 
remedies. Why shouldn't we open our ports to any- 
body who has anything to burn that wdll protect our 
people against the recklessness or rapacity of such 
men ? Or why should not the state or national gov- 
ernment, as a last resort, condemn and reclaim their 
coal lands ? The}^ may make commmunists out of 
Congressmen if these outrages continue. 

Mr. Lawler (dem.), of Illinois. — Workingmen do 
not throw themselves out of employment in midwinter 
except for good and sufficient reasons. 

Mr. Lind (rep.), of Minnesota. — While I would not 
presume to give an opinion on such information as I 
have in the case, I will say that upon general princi- 
ples my sympathies are with the strikers. I believe 



THE DEATH OF MAMMON. 1 69 

that in many cases the strikes are provoked by the 
coal barons, as we call them out west, that they may 
have a pretext for raising the price of coal. 

Mr. Vance (dem.), of Connecticut. — It seems to me 
that when the price of coal is advancing, and the wages 
of the laborers are being decreased at the same time, 
the men have some justice on their side. 

Mr. Weaver, of Iowa. — So large a body of men are 
not striking without good cause. They belong to an 
organization and are subject to a constitution which 
forbids them to strike without cause. I presume they 
have acted discreetl}^ The unjust aggregations of 
capitalists who form trusts and other combinations to 
the detriment of labor are the cause of most of these 
strikes. The combinations are so welded together that 
they are more powerful than the state, and, like the 
brigands of Ital}^ they have in their emplo}^ an army 
ot bravos, known among us as the Pinkerton detec- 
tives, and who are about as unnecessary as their Ital- 
ian prototypes. The people will find a remedy for these 
things by and by. Meanwhile mj^ sympathies are 
alwa5'S with the laboring classes, for I belie v^e they are 
wronged and oppressed at almost every turn of the 
government wheel. 

Mr. White (rep.), of Indiana. — I think the men are 
right every time. If any humanity had been exhib" 
ited toward the men they would not act unreasonably 
or unruly. As a rule strikers proceed from the op- 
pression of employers. The greed of corporations 
very generally impels their men to strike. 



lyo THE LIGHT OI^ PERSIA ; OR 

Mr. Whiting (rep.), of Massachusetts. — I believe 
the strike was caused because the company wanted to 
reduce wages eight per cent. As the company was 
doing a good business, such a movement, it would 
seem to me, was injudicious, as there was no necessity 
for it. The fact of the strike occurring at this partic- 
ular season of the year, when there is the greatest de- 
mand for coal, would rather convey the suspicion that 
the company wanted to advance prices. 

Mr. Yost (rep.), of Virginia. — Right and justice 
are apparently with the strikers. 

Senator McPherson(dem.), of New Jersey. — I think 
the right side is on the side of the miners most as- 
suredly. There is no class of labor in this country so 
poorly paid as are the miners of coal and iron ore. 
They are down at starvation wages all the time. The 
great companies that own both the mines and the rail- 
roads can make coal dear or cheap to the consumer as 
they please. We had an illustration of that last win- 
ter, when the coal companies increased the price of 
coal to consumers in midwnnter nearly 50 cents per ton 
by simply limiting the output from the mines. In 
short, the}'- turned labor loose to starve at one end of 
the line and increased the price of coal to consumers 
at the other. If labor, however, undertakes to inter- 
fere arbitrarily and unjustly with the management of 
the railroad property, it becomes entirel}^ a different 
affair. I do not understand that to be the case in the 
present attitude of the Reading strike. 

We have selected the above opinions without regard 
to politics. We call special attention to the opinions 



Th:^ DfiATH OF^ MAMMON. TJl 

of Representative Brumm, of Pennsylvania, and Sen- 
ator McPherson, of New Jersey, who are presumed to 
know better how matters stand than men further away 
who are more dependent on the misleading dispatches 
passing over monopoly wires. 

The great body of our American congressmen have 
no opinions on the question at issue, or care nothing 
about it. Our Kansas senators and representatives, 
all except Mr. Anderson, are in this deplorable and 
humiliating condition of ignorance. We give a syn- 
opsis of their reported statements as follows : 

Senator Ingalls. — I know absolutely nothing about 
it. 

Senator Plumb. — I have nothing to say. I do not 
consider it in the line of my duties to study the troub- 
les between corporations and their emplo3^es. 

We beg to suggest right here that in all these and 
similar troubles, there are three parties in interest : the 
corporations, the employes, and the public ! And the 
public, with all its business and personal interests and 
comforts at stake, is, usually, the greatest suffer. If 
Senator Plumb represents none of these interests, in 
heaven's name let him resign and give place to some 
senator who has a juster idea of the " line of his duties !" 

Mr. Perkins. — I do not think there was any justifi- 
cation or occasion for the strike. 

Mr. Funston. — I have nothing to say about it. 

Mr. Morrill. — It is very rarely that the right is en- 
tirely on one side, but in this present case I am not 
prepared to answer the question. 



172 THE LIGHT OF PERSIA ; OR 

Mr. Ryan. — I am not acquainted with the facts and 
cannot express an opinion. 

Mr. Peters. — I am not sufficiently conversant with 
the facts to express an opinion. 

Mr. Turner. — I have not studied the question. 

In short, every senator and representative from 
Kansas, except the wide-awake and patriotic repre- 
sentative from the Fifth district, was caught and pub- 
licly photographed with his finger in his mouth, while 
the great country the}^ represent and pretend to serve 
was in urgent need of their attention and services. 
Hundreds of thousands of the most worthy and the 
most helpless people were suffering the pangs of cold 
and hunger ; and every northern state, including Kan- 
sas, was suffering loss and discomfort for want of their 
just and usual supply of fuel. Yet none of these men 
knew or cared anything about it ! This is what comes 
of sending corporation attorneys, bankers, monopo- 
lists and speculators to Congress. They have no 
sympathy with the common people, nor with the le" 
gitimate industries of the country. If they are not 
utterly lost to all sense of shame, their disgraceful nu- 
dity of information on a great practical subject thus 
photographed in the e3-es of a disgusted and sorely 
wronged people, should cause their brazen cheeks to 
tingle with remorse ! Nero could fiddle while Rome 
burned. Our rich senators and representatives can 
sleep while millions of our people freeze and starve, 
under the heels of the coal barons and corporate mo- 
nopolies that rob and ruin the country at will. 



THE DEATH OF MAMMON. 1 73 

The first practical help comes from the representa- 
tive of the Fifth Kansas district, in the shape of a res- 
olution of inquir}?^ as to the cause of the continued 
failure of the Reading railroad to run its trains. Mr. 
Anderson's resolution was at once accorded a respect- 
ful hearing, and every patriot must hope that much 
good will come of it. 

There is said to exist in some of those mining val- 
leys of Pennsylvania more degradation and suffering 
than were ever seen on the cotton and sugar planta- 
tions of the South in the blackest and darkest days of 
chattel slavery. Let Mr. Anderson's inquiry be per- 
mitted, and let it go on with vigor. A flood of light 
on the subject is what is first wanted. And, as usual, 
Kansas is to the front ! The Fifth district forever ! ! 
But over the other districts, and over our senators, let 
us draw the mantle of shameful oblivion !" — -Junction 
City i^Kan.') Tribune, Jayi. ^88. 

"Since the dawn of history, the great thorough- 
fares have belonged to the people, have been known as 
the king's highways or the public highways, and have 
been open to the free use of all, on payment of a small 
uniform tax or toll to keep them in repair. But now 
the most perfect and by far the most important roads 
known to mankind are owned and managed as private, 
property by a comparatively small number of private 
citizens. . . . The corporations have become con- 
scious ot their strength and have entered upon the 
work of controlling the states. 



174 'THE LIGHT OF PERSIA ; OR 

Already the}^ have captured several of the oldest 
and strongest of them ; and these discrowned sover- 
eigns (States) now follow in chains the triumphal 
Chariots of their Conquerers. The modern barons, 
more powerful than their militar}^ prototypes, owm our 
greatest highways and levy tribute at will upon all our 
vast industries." — Extract from a speech by James A. 
Garfield, in iSy^.. 

* * I repeat to-day in substance words uttered seven 
years ago, that, ' there are in this country four men, 
who, in the matter of taxation, possess and frequently 
exercise powers which neither congress nor any state 
legislature would dare to exert — powers which, if ex- 
ercised in Great Britain, would shake the throne to the 
foundation. These men may at any time, and for any 
reason satisfactory to themselves, by a stroke of the 
pen, reduce the value of property in the United States 
by hundreds of millions. The}^ may at their own will 
and pleasure embarrass business, depress one city or 
locality and build up another, enrich one individual 
and ruin his competitors, and when complaint is made 
coolly reply, "What are you going to do about it?" 
. The channels of commerce being owned and 
controlled by one man or a few men, what is to restrain 
corporate power or to fix a limit to its exactions upon 
the people? What is to hinder these men from de- 
pressing or inflating the values of all kinds of prop- 
ert}^ to suit their caprice or avarice, and thereby gath- 
ering into their own coffers the wealth of the nation ? 
Where is the limit to such a power as this ? And what 



THE DEATH OF MAMMON. 1 75 

shall be said of the spirit of a free people who will sub- 
mit without a protest to be thus bound hand and foot !" 
— Senator IVindom. 

A very famous writer says : ' ' To encourage a sin- 
gle bunting factory the very ensign of an American 
ship has been subjected to a duty of 150 per cent. 
From keelson to truck, from the wire in her stays to 
the brass in her taffrail log, everything that goes to 
the building, the fitting, or the storing of a ship is 
burdened with heavy taxes. Even should she be re- 
paired abroad she must pay taxes for it on her return 
home. Thus has protection strangled an industry in 
which with free trade we might still have led the 
world. And the injurj^ we have done ourselves has 
been, in some degree at least, an injury to mankind. 
Who can doubt that ocean steamers would to day 
have been swifter and better had American builders 
been free to compete with English builders ? 

** Though our navigation laws, which forbid the 
carrying of a pound of freight or a single passenger 
from American port to American port on any other 
than an American-built vessel, obscure the effects of 
protection in our coasting trade, they are just as truly 
felt in our ocean trade. The increased cost of build- 
ing and running vessels has, especially as to steam- 
ers, operated to stunt the growth of our coasting trade 
and to check by higher freights the development of 
other industries. And how restriction strengthens 
monopoly is seen in the manner in which the effect of 
protection upon our coastwise trade has been to make 



176 THE LIGHT OF PERvSIA ; OR 

easier the extortions of railway syndicates. For in- 
stance, the Pacific Railway pool has for 3^ears paid the 
Pacific Mail Steamship compan}- $85,000 a month to 
keep up its rates of fare and freight between New York 
and San Francisco. It would have been impossible 
for the railw^ay ring thus to prevent competition had 
the trade betw^een the Atlantic and Pacific been open 
to foreign vessels." — Chicago Times, Apinl 21, 1888. 

' ' The present freight rates on corn were made when 
corn w^as selling at 55 cents in Kansas City. Corn is 
now 15 cents, wdiich leaves a comparative rate of profit 
four times as large for railroads as for farmers, hence 
railroads report this the most profitable year in their 
history, but alas ! for the farmer. " — The Topeka Jeffer- 
sonian, Januaiy 2jd, i8go. 

No Whiskers or No Work. 

In compliance w^ith a general order issued by the 
superintendent of the Philadelphia and Reading Rail- 
road Company, the brakemen and baggage-masters 
employed on the road will be compelled to report for 
duty in the future with clean-shaven faces. This order 
has caused no end of talk among the men, many of 
whom have beards remarkable for grace and beauty. 
It is simply a case of whiskers and no work or steady 
emplo3nnent and no whiskers. 

A number of employes who enjoyed the luxury of 
a clean shave are now suffering with the grippe. In 
connection wdth the order doing awa}' with beards is 
an order compelling the men to keep their coats closely 



THE DEATH OF MAMMON. 1 77 

buttoned while on duty. This means for the men a 
sort of Russian bath between stations, 

When the superintendent of the road issued his 
sweeping order for the sacrifice of the beards he made 
no explanation, but it is generally understood that his 
idea is to have all the men employed on the Reading 
road look as slick as possible. According to his way 
of thinking a man cannot meet these requirements ex- 
cept by having a clean-shaven face. — New York Her- 
ald^ 1 8 go. 

' ' We are asked every few days what in thunder a 
trust is. A trust is a regular she-devil, a son-of-a-gun, 
a devil-fish. The harder you try to get away the 
tighter it fastens on ; it never gets tired, never rests, 
never sleeps, has no heart to feel or soul to save ; but is 
a stem-winder to do business, and goes through the 
farmer's wealth and laborer's pocket quicker than a 
dose of salts through a tin horn. The trust staid at 
home, shaved notes, bought bonds, run national banks, 
and plundered the government while the soldiers were 
suppressing the rebellion. The trusts succeed in pay- 
ing the soldier fifty cents on the dollar, and themselves 
from $i.oo to $2.85 in greenbacks for their gold dollar, 
which they exchanged for government bonds at par ; 
when they had the thing corralled to suit them, they 
formed pools and combinations on grain, cattle, beef, 
hogs, pork, sugar, flour, coffee, tea, dry goods, groce- 
ries, lumber, nails— in fact, anything their fancy might 
dictate, and set a price at which the articles should be 
sold, and either bought out, run out or crushed out 



178 THE LIGHT OF PERSIA ; OR 

the smaller dealers ; and then the harvest of the trust 
came, in the enhanced price for wheat the laborer pur- 
chased, and the low price at which the farmer had to 
sell, with the lowering of wages, a high protective 
tariff for the trusts, and the consumer with a very low 
tariff protection or no protection at all — such are 
trusts." — -Junction City {Kan.) Tribune. 

The Hod-Carrier's Prayer. 

Commenting on a lecture by Rev. Dr. Harris before 
a well-fed, well-dressed audience in Sidney, N. S. W., 
John Ramsey, writing in the Australian Standard 
under the nom de plume of "Yasmar," quotes this 
passage : 

Work on, do the work provided, whether work of 
brain or hand, as a God-given task. Work, work, 
work ; pray, pray, pray. 

To this Mr. Ramsey makes the following sarcastic 
reply : 

Most excellent advice, and most necessary for the 
citizen of Darling Point. His is the work of the brain, 
in writing out receipts for the rent of his rows of 
houses in the fever plots of the slums, in supervising 
the laying out of his grounds by the landscape gar- 
dener, and in planning legislative schemes to induce 
everybod}^ to be content with his lot. But he is apt 
to do these things in a perfunctory way, and needs to 
be spurred on to a sense of his duty. And so it is with 
the hod-carrier. He is too ready to hang about the 
Statue, and go to sleep in the park, when he should be 



THE DEATH OF MAMMON. 179 

working. When he knows that he has a delicate wife 
at home who is doing her share of work by washing 
three days a week, and ironing till midnight, for other 
people, in addition to her own house duties, and that 
his two little girls are selling matches around the bars 
and theatre doors till eleven o'clock every night, and 
that his boys are loafing about the wharves all day 
picking up bits of coal and chips for the fire, he ought 
certainly to engage in some occupation. Whatever 
kind of work it may be, let him remember it is a God 
given task. If he cannot get employment at carrying 
bricks and mortar up a forty-foot ladder his pride must 
not prevent him from working at some less congenial 
task. Let him go into the country — and he need not 
go far, as there is plenty of unused agricultural land 
near Sydney — and settle down to a rural life. With his 
brawny arms and broad shoulders he could surely raise 
enough food to fill the mouths that depend upon him. 
But whether he carries bricks or digs potatoes, let him 
not neglect to pray. He ma}^ choose the most conve- 
nient time for praying, but, as it would probably in- 
terfere with the progress of the building, and with the 
amount of wages to be received at the end of the week, 
to engage in prayer during the day, the most fitting 
time would perhaps be before going to bed. Then, 
having given his sick wife the cup of watery gruel 
which a poorer neighbor has sent in, and having coaxed 
his hungry little children to sleep by the promise of a 
big dinner next day, he may proceed to offer up some 
such petition as this: "Oh, thou invisible and all 
puissant director of the universe, thou beneficent father 



l8o THE LIGHT OF PERSIA ; OR 

of all, as I have been led to believe, permit me, one of 
thy most insignificant children, to approach thee. I am 
unworthy to come into thy august presence, and in- 
trude my petty affairs on thy notice seeing that thou 
art so occupied with the suggestions of the late church 
congress, the election of a bishop of Sydney, and the 
reiterated supplications in a popular tune on behalf of 
the queen of England. I am conscious of the dread 
consequences which would follow if I presumed so to 
address an earthly monarch, but though thou art King 
of kings, I beseech I may be pardoned for approach- 
ing thee as father. 

Thou hast created all things and hast ordained 
everything to thy pleasure. Thou hast created the 
great estates of the land syndicate, and the broad park 
lands of the rich man, which are capable of growing 
thousands of tons of wheat, and of depasturing tens of 
thousands of sheep and cattle, and thou has also cre- 
ated the pangs of hunger which rack my little ones 
daily ; thou hast ordained the debilit}^ and melancholy 
which heavy toil and want of food have brought to my 
poor wife, and thou hast created the fortifying beef 
tea and the blood-giving claret ; thou hast created the 
typhoid germ, and the hot fever tide which rushes 
through the veins of my dear little bo}^ and thou hast 
also created the drug quinine which sells at one pound 
an ounce ; thou hast created the costly orchid of the 
rich man which he has no time to admire, and thou 
hast also created the geranium in the jam tin on the 
window sill which cheers my sick loved ones ; thou 
hast created the kind rich man who builds houses and 



THE DEATH OK MAMMON. l8l 

gives me the work to do because he is not strong 
enough to carry bricks up a ladder, and thou hast cre- 
ated me strong and muscular above all hod- carriers. 
Thy ways are inscrutable, but I know thou has or- 
dered all things well. It is popularly supposed that 
thou hast given man dominion over the field, but I 
know this passage is not to be read literally, and refers 
to some men only. It is also considered that the 
earth is the Lord's, and the fullness thereof, but it is 
evident that, for some wise purpose of thine own, thou 
hast permitted vast tracts of it to fall into the absolute 
possession of a few men, possibly because they are 
purer in heart and more humble than I, thy unworthy 
creature. Thou being the Great Father of all, these 
men are my brethren, but in thine own wise discretion 
thou hast deemed it meet that they should retain do- 
minion over my bit of the field, and to that end thou 
hast ordained the sacred ordinance of private property 
in land. To my blind stubborn intellect it might 
seem better that the broad untilled acres of the earth 
should produce food for the millions of thy starving 
children than be devoted to the deer and the fox and 
the racehorse, but I know that all these things shall 
be made clear to me in Paradise when I shall be in- 
troduced to my brethren, the marquis of Westminster 
and Mr. Vanderbilt, and Sir Daniel Cooper, and the 
marquis of Argyle, and I, with others like myself, 
shall then be able to express our gratitude to them 
for the chastening influence they exerted on us on 
earth. Therefore I beseech thee that I may always 
keep my strength in order to be able to carry bricks, 



l82 THE LIGHT OF PERSIA ; OR 

and that I may never grow old and feeble, as the kind, 
rich man would then be obliged to carry his own 
bricks." — The Standard, November i6, i88g. 

Three Hundred Million Dollars. 



Curious Calculations Concerning this Enor- 
mous Sum of Money. 

Philadelphia /^^'^^^ .• F. H. Swords, a banker of Lon- 
don, sat in the Continental corridor recently reading a 
newspaper. Suddenly he pointed to a paragraph in 
the latter and said : 

* ' Listen to this statement : ' The Vanderbilt estate 
is now calculated to be worth at least $300,000,000.' " 
Mr. Swords folded his paper, and, leaning back in the 
chair, continued : "Of course I do not know whether 
that statement is true ; but I saw it published in the 
Standard several weeks ago. 

' ' The sum seemed so enormous that I spent quite 
a while in calculating the physical proportions of that 
number of silver dollars. Here is a little slip in my 
wallet here that may give you some idea. If Adam, 
when he first looked around in the Garden of Eden, 
say 6,000 3^ears ago, had been met by Satan and had 
been employed by him at a regular salary of $50,000 
per annum and his board and clothes ; and if Adam 
had carefully laid his silver dollars away in barrels 
each year, and had lived to the present time, he would 
now have $300,000,000. Again, if a man born in the 
Christian era, 1890 years ago, had li\ed and been 



THE DEATH OF MAMMON. 1 83 

steadily employed at a salary of $14,000 per month, 
$443 per day, and his living expenses besides, and had 
saved every dollar of it, he would not to-da}^ have 
three hundred millions. 

"If it were necessary to transport this number of 
silver dollars it would require five hundred and thirty - 
six freight cars each of a capacity of twenty tons. If 
these cars were put into one train it would be more 
than four miles long. If it were possible for three 
hundred million silver dollars to be laid on the ground 
in a straight line, with edges touching each other the 
whole distance, the line would reach farther than from 
London across the Atlantic Ocean and over the North 
American Continent to San Francisco. A sidewalk of 
three hundred million silver dollars could be laid six 
feet wide and more than fifteen miles long. If three 
hundred million dollars were laid one on top of the 
other they would make a column 475 miles high. If 
taken down and arranged in the form of a cube each 
side of the latter would be thirty-five feet long and 
wide, and it would weigh more than 10,000 tons. If 
such a weight were dropped from the roof of the new 
city hall the concussion would be great enough to de- 
stroy that part of the city." — January zp, Zc^^o. 



" What are you going to do about it?" 
*^ The public be damned !" — Vanderbilt. 



184 THE LIGHT OF PERSIA ; OR 

Who Owns Ami:rica ? 



Our Public Domain. 



A Record of Robbery Unparalleled in the 
World's History. 

Even those who have given considerable thought 
and study to the land qustion and are familiar with 
the means by which oiir vast public domain has been 
frittered away have hardly any adequate conception 
of the extent to which the people have permitted them- 
selves to be robbed. 

All those who are at all interested in this subject 
should have heard the speech of H Martin Williams, 
of Missouri, at the Trades Assembly Hall last Satur- 
day night. 

The statistics and facts presented by him were a rev- 
elation to those who heard him, and he has kindh' per- 
mitted us to lay them before the readers of The Jeff err 
sonian. 

The}^ will furnish food for thought and ammunition 
tor those who have the disposition and ability to use 
them. 

land grants to railroads. 

From September 20, 1850, to May 4, 1870, one hun- 
dred and sixt}^ acts of Congress were passed granting 
lands to railroads, as follows : 



THE DEATH OF MAMMON. 185 

The States in which lands were granted, date of act 
of granting same, road to which granted and number 
of acres, are : 

Ilhnois, Sept. 20, 1850, 111. Cent, and Mobile & 

Chicago 2,595,053 

Mississippi, Sept. 20, 1850, Mobile & Ohio River. . . . 1,004,640 
Mississippi, Aug. 11, 1856, Vicksburg & Meridian 

Road 404,800 

Mississippi, Aug. 11, 1836, Gulf & Ship Island., 652,800 



Total in Mississippi 2,068.240 

Alabama, Sept. 50, 1850, Mobile & Ohio River 230,400 

Alabama* May 17, 1855, - labama & Florida 419,520 

Alabama, June 3. 1866, and May 23, 1872, Selma, 

Rome & Dalton 581,920 

Alabama, June 3, 1856, Coosa & Tennessee 132, s8o 

Alabama, June 3, 1856, Mobile & Girard 840,880 

Alabama, June 3, 1856, and April 18, 1689, Alabama 

& Chattanooga 879,920 

Alabama, June 3, 1855, and March 3, 1871,- South & 

North Alabama • ' • 576. 100 



Total in Alabama 3, 579, 00 

Florida, May 17, 1856 Florida Railroad 442,542 

Florida, May 17, 1856. Florida & Alabama 165. 688 

Florida, May 17, 1856, Pensacola & Georgia 1,568,720 

Florida, May 17, 1856, Florida, Atlantic & Gulf. 183.153 



Total in Florida 2,360, 112 

I/Ouisiana, June 3, 1856, Vicksburg & Shreveport.. . . 610,880 
Louisiana, June 3, 1856, and July 14, 1870, N. O., Op- 

elousas & Gt. West 967,840 



Total in Louisiana ; 1,578,720 



l86 THE LIGHT OF PERSIA ; OR 

Arkansas, Feb, 9, 1853, July 28, 1866, May 6, 1870, 

Cairo & Fulton 1,160.667 

Arkansas, Feb. 9, 1855, July 28, 1866, April 10. 1869, 

March 8, 1870, Little Rock & Fort Smith 1009,290 

Arkansas, July 4, 1866, Iron Mountain 864,000 

Total in Arkansas 4,878, 148 



Missouri, June 10, 1852, Hannibal and St. Jo 781,944 

Missouri. June 10, 1852, Pacific & West Branch 1,161,235 

Missouri, Feb. 9, 1853, Cairo & Fulton 219,262 

Missouri, July 28, 1856, Cairo & Fulton 182,718 

Missouri, July 29, 1866, St. Louis & Iron Mountain. 640,000 

Total in Missouri 2,985,159 

Iowa, May 5, 1856, June 2, 1864, Feb. 10, 1866, Bur- 
lington & Missouri River 948,643 

Iowa, May 15, 1856, June 2, 1864, Jan. 31, 1S73, Chi- 
cago, Rock Island & Pacific 1,261,181 

Iowa, May 15, 1856, June 2, 1864, Cedar Rapds & Mis- 
souri River 1,298,739 

Iowa, May 15, 1856, Iowa Falls & Sioux City 1,226,163 

Iowa, June 2, 1864, March 2, 1868, May 12, 1864, Du- 
buque and Sioux City and McGregor & Missouri 

River 1,536,000 

Iowa, May 12, 1864, Sioux City & St. Paul 524,800 

Total in Iowa 6,987,526 

Michigan, June 3, 1856, Detroit & Milwaukee 355>43o 

Michigan, June 3, 1856, Pt. Huron & Milwaukee. .. 312,384 
Michigan, June 3, 1867, March 2, 1867, March 3, 1871, 

Jackson, Lansing & Saginaw 1,052,469 

Michigan, June 3, 1856, Feb. 17, 1866, July 3, 1866, 

March 3, 1871, Flint & Pere Marquette 586,828 



THE DEATH OF MAMMON. 1 87 

Michigan, July 3, 1856, June 7, 1864, March 3, 1866, 
May 20, 1868, April 20, 187 1, Marquette, Hough- 
ton & Ontonagon 552,515 

July 3, 1856, June 7, 1864, March 3, 1871, Grand Rap- 
ids & Indiana 1,160,392 

Michigan, March 3, 1865, Bay de Noquet, Marquette 

& St. Ste. Maria 1 28,000 

Total in Michigan 4,712,478 

Wisconsin, June 3, 1856, May 5, 1864, March 3, 1873, 

West Wisconsin 999.9^4 

Wisconsin, June 3, 1856, May 5, 1864, St. Croix and 

Lake Superior and Branch to Bayfield 1,408,441 

Wisconsin, June 3, 1856, April 25, 1862, May 3, 1855, 

March 3, 1869, Chicago & Northwestern 600,000 

Wisconsin, May 5, 1864, June 21, 1866, Wisconsin 

Central 750,000 

Total in Wisconsin 3.758,434 

Minnesota, March 3, 1857, March 3, 1873, St. Paul & 

Pacific 1,248,638 

Minnesota, March 3, 1857, March 3, 1866, July 12, 

1862, Branch St. Paul & Pacific 1,475,000 

Minnesota, March 3, 1871, March 3, 1873, St. Vin- 
cent Branch 643,403 

Minnesota, March 13, 1857, July 13, 1866, Jan. 13, 

1873, Winona & St. Peters 1,410,000 

Minnesota, March 3, 1857, May 12, 1864, St. Paul & 

Sioux City 1,010,000 

Minnesota, May 5, 1864, pily 13, 1866, l^ake Superior 

& Mississippi 920,000 

Minnesota, July 4, 1866, vSouthern Minnesota 735, 000 

Minnesota, July 4, 1865, Hastings & Dakota 550,000 

Total in Minnesota 9,892,041 



1 88 THE LIGHT OF PERSIA ; OR 

Kansas, March 3, 1863. July i, 1864, April 19, 1871, 

Leavenworth, Lawrence & Galveston 800,000 

Kansas, March 3, 1863, July i, 1864, April 19, 1871, 

Missouri, Kansas & Texas 1,520,000 

Kansas, March 3, 1863, Atchison, Topeka & S. F. ... 3,000,000 

Kansas, July 23, 1866, St. Jo. & Denver 1,700,000 

Kansas, July 25, 1866, Missouri River, Fort Scott & 

Gulf 2,350,000 

Kansas, July i, I862, July 2, 1864, July 3, 1866, May 7, 

1866, March 3, 1869, Kansas Pacific 6,000,000 

of which 4,000,000 was in Kansas. 
Kansas, July i, 1862, July 20, 1864, Central Branch 

Union Pacific 245,166 

Total in Kansas 20,815,000 



To corporations, July i, 1862, July 2, 1864, July 3, 
1866, July 26, 1866, April 10, 1869, May 6, 1870, 

Union Pacific 12,000,000 

To corporations, March 3, 1S69, Denver Pacific 1.000,000 

To corporations, July i, 1862, July 2, 1864, Central 

Pacific 8,000,000 

To corporations, by same acts to Central Pacific, suc- 
cessors by consolidation with Western Pacific. . .. 1,100,000 

To corporations, July 2, 1864, Sioux City Pacific 60,000 

To corporations, July 2, 1864, May 7, 1868, July i, 

1868, March i, 1869, April 10, 1869, May 31,1870, 
Northern Pacific 47,000,000 

To corporations, July 3, 1866, Placerville & Sacra- 
mento 200 .000 

To corporations, July 26, 1866, June 25, 1868, April 

10, 1869, Oregon Branch of Central Pacific 3,000,000 

To corporations, July 25, 1866, June 25, 1868, April 10, 

1869, Oregon & California 3,500,000 

To corporations, July 27, 1866, April 20, 1871, Atlan- 
tic & Pacific 42,000,000 



THE DEATH OF MAMMON. 1 89 

To corporations, July 27, 1866, March 3, 1871, South- 
ern Pacific 9,520,000 

To corporations, March 2, 1867, Stockton & Copper- 

opolis 320,000 

To corporations. May 4, 1870, Oregon Central 1,200,000 

Total acres land granted to railroads ,. . . .191,903,957 

Or enough to make 1.199,400 farms of 160 acres each. 

TOTAIv LAND GRANTS. 

Ac} es. 

For canals, from 1827 to 1866 4,405,968 

For educational purposes 77,493,162 

To railroad corporations ^9i>903,957 

Total amount given away 273,803, 105 

The amount of land is greater by 17,000 square 
miles than the combined area of the six New England 
States and New York, New Jersey, Delaware, Mary- 
land, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, 
Wisconsin, Iowa and Missouri, or all the States east of 
the Mississippi and north of the Ohio Rivers, includ- 
ing all the populous and wealthy states, now contain- 
ing forty millions of people, and not 3'et half settled. 

In addition to this, 12,963,593 acres of public lands 
have been illegally enclosed by cattle and other syndi- 
cates, largely composed of foreign nobles. 

AlylEN IvAND- OWNERS. 

The following foreign individuals and syndicates 
own the amount of land set opposite their names : 

Acres. 

An English syndicate in Texas 3,000,000 

Holland I^and Company, New Mexico. 4,500,000 



190 THE LIGHT OF PERSIA ; OR 

Sir E. Reed, syndicate in Florida 2,000,000 

English syndicate iu Mississippi 1,800,000 

Baron Tweedale 1,750,000 

Phillips, Marshall & Co., London 1,300,000 

German syndicate 1,100000 

Anglo-American syndicate, London 750,000 

Byron H. Evans, London 700,000 

Duke of Sutherland 422,000 

British Land Company in Kansas 320,000 

W. Wharley, M. P. , Peterboro 310,000 

Missouri Land Company, Scotland 300,000 

Robert Tenant, of London 530,000 

Dundee Laud Co., Scotland 247,000 

Lord Dunmore 120,000 

Bengame Neugas, Liverpool 100,000 

Lord Houghton, in Florida 60,000 

Lord Dunraven, in Colorado 60,000 

English Laud Co. , Florida 50,000 

English Land Co., Arkansas , 50,000 

A. Peel, M. P., Leicestershire, E 10,000 

Sir J. L. Kay, Yorkshire, E 5,ooo 

Alexander Grant, London, Kan 35, 000 

English Syndicate, Wisconsin „ 110,000 

M. Ellerhausea, West Virginia 600,000 

A Scotch Syndicate in Florida 500,000 

A. Boysen, Danish Consul, Mil 50,000 

Missouri Land Co. , Edinburg 165 ,000 

H. Disston in Florida 2,000,000 

Baron Wni. Scully, in 111. and Kas 200,000 

Richard Sykes and Mr. Hughes, of England, in Da- 
kota 85,000 

C. M. Beach, of London, in Dakota 10,000 

Fiulay Dun & Co. , in Dakota 25.000 

Marquis Demores, iu Dakota and Montana., 15,000 

Close Brothers 270,000 

Marquis of Aylesbury 55,051 

Duke of Beaufort 51,085 



THE DEATH OF MAMMON. I91 

Duke of Bedford 87,507 

Earl of Brownlow 57.799 

Earl of Carlisle 7o.54o 

Earl of Cawdor 5i>538 

Duke of Cleveland 106,650 

Earl of Derby 56,598 

Maxwell Land Co 1,714,964 

Duke of Devonshire 148,629 

Lord Beconsfield 66,101 

Lord Londesborough 52,655 

Earl of Lonsdale 67,950 

Duke of Northumberland 191.480 

Duke of Portland, 55,259 

Earl of Powis 46,095 

Duke of Rutland 70,039 

Lady Willoughby 59, 9^2 

Sir W. W. Wynn 91.032 

Earl of Sarborough 55,37o 

26,213,354 

Here are fifty -six foreign corporations and individ- 
uals who own more land than there is in the state of 
Indiana, by 860,630 acres, or enough to give 140,615 
American citizens each a farm of 160 acres. 

This list is incomplete, comprising only fifty-six cor- 
porations and individuals owning an aggregate of 26,- 
213,354 acres. A full list of the foreigners who have 
acquired land in the country, would show an aggre- 
gate holding of not less than 40,000,000 acres. 

This does not include farms taken by foreign loan 
companies on foreclosure in the United States courts, 
which aggregate more acres than all the above large 
holdings. It was stated in a reliable republican paper 
about a year ago that over 2,700 farms in northern 



192 THE LIGHT OF PERSIA ; OR 

Kansas had passed to foreign loan companies b}^ fore- 
closure in eighteen months. Neither does this list in- 
clude the enormous land values in mines and mining 
stocks, rights of way of railroads, etc., owned by 
foreigners. 

AMEIRICAN LAND OWNERS. 

In presenting the following list of thirty American 
corporations and persons owning large bodies of land, 
aggregating 14,036,000 acres, Mr. Williams stated 
that it constituted but a fraction of the American land 
grabbers, and that the. list might be extended indefi- 
nitely. 

It is generally thought of the American landlord 
that he is a very harmless, inoffensive sort of an indi- 
vidual, when, in truth, he is just as bad ; just as greedy; 
just as mean and just as dangerous as his twin brother 
across the water. He is simply a separate link of the 
same sausage made out of the same dog. 

American land lords hold more land in the United 
States for speculative purposes and to grow rich from 
rent, than is held by foreign land owners in this 
country. Here is a partial list, with the amount owned 

by each : 

Acres. 

Ex-Senator Dorsey, in N. M 5cx),ooo 

Col. D. C. Murphy 4,068,000 

Col. Church of New York, 180 farms of from 200 to 

500 acres each, in all about 60,000 

Mr. Clark, of New York 30,000 

Standard Oil Co. , in several states 1,000,000 

Dr. Glenn, of California 90,000 

E. Mariner, of Milwaukee, Wis 70,000 



THE DEATH OF MAMMON. 193 

George Hanley, in Wisconsin 32,000 

David Selsor, in Ohio . , 25.000 

Maurice Raleigh, in New Jersey 30,000 

E. C. Sprague, in several states 500,000 

Virginia Coal & Iron Co 100,000 

Col. Myer, in Wisconsin 35, 000 

Texas Land & Cattle Co, 240,000 

Texas State Fund (owned by four men) 3,000,000 

A New York Syndicate, in Texas 300,000 

McLaughlin, of California 400,000 

Wm. S. Chapman, in California 350,000 

Ex-State Surveyor Gen Houghton, of California 35, 000 

Ex-State Surveyor Gen. Beals 300,000 

Miller & Lux, of San Francisco 450,000 

John W. Dwight, of Pennsylvania, owns in North 
Dakota a farm nearly as large as the state of 

Rhode Island 1 100 sq. miles 704,000 

Bixby, Flint & Co., of San Francisco 200,000 

G. W. Roberts, of San Francisco 140,000 

Isaac Freidlander, of California 100,000 

Throckmorton, of California 146,000 

Murphy family, of Santa Clara 156,000 

Thos. Fowler, in California 200,000 

Abel Stearns, of Los Angeles 200,000 

A Philadelphia firm, in California 200,000 



Total 14,036,000 

Here we have 29 American corporations and indi- 
\idualswho own 14,036,000 acres, or a good deal more 
than half as much land as there is within the boun- 
daries of the state of Indiana ! And this is only a very 
small part of the number of American land owners, 
who hold from 5,000 to 4,000,000 acres each. 



194 '^HE LIGHT OF PERSIA ; OR 

WHAT IT MEANS. 

Nearly all the great fortunes of America have been 
derived from these unjust and illegal land grants, and 
from the increase of land values in cities, towns, vil- 
lages, mines, forests, and railway and street-car rights 
of way and other franchises — all of which were the 
property and inheritance of the whole people until 
stolen through bribery and corruption of false and 
traitorous politicians. The United States Senate is 
principally composed of the beneficiaries of these land 
grants and their paid satraps and attorne3^s and the 
United States House Of Representatives is dominated 
by the same interests and influences. The State ofii- 
cers and legislators of the Western States and territo- 
ries are the creatures and servants of the men and cor- 
porations grown rich and arrogant through land grants 
and railway franchises, both of which are the birth- 
right and part of the sovereignty of the people and 
should have been held for the common good of all. 

To abolish all other direct or indirect taxes, except 
possibly that necessarj^ for police control of nuisances, 
as on whisky, dogs, etc., and to raise all public reve- 
nues by a single tax on the rental value of real estate 
alone, exclusive of improvements, will reclaim to the 
people their lost inheritance and restore their birth- 
right in the bounties of nature. 

Otherwise, we become like Ireland — a nation of 
proud and haughty landlords and servile and helpless 
tenants. No palliative nor half-way measures will 
right the wrong. The axe must be laid to the root of 
the deadly Upas tree. The poison, miasmatic stream 



THE DEATH OF MAMMON. 1 95 

of privilege must be dried up — not turned into a new 
channel. Are you helping or hindering the work of 
redeeming man from thralldom ?" — The ( Topeka, Kan.) 
Jeffersonian^ January joth, i8go. 

Parnell's Triumph. 

The friends of Mr. Parnell and all men who love jus- 
tice and fair play, will rejoice with him in his final tri- 
umph over the London Times. It has persecuted and 
vilified him for years, but the persecutions are at an 
end. The original trial broke down after the suicide 
of the forger Pigott, and when he turned upon his 
enemy and sued for libel, warned by past experience^ 
it acknowledged the injustice it had done him and the 
baseless character of its assaults, as well as its own 
craven fear, by compromising with him and paying 
him heavy damages to withdraw the suit. It was a 
clear case of political persecution and an attempt to 
drive him from the policy he has pursued so long and 
so manfully, and it had all the forces of the Tory party 
at its back helping to break him down, to smash the 
Home Rule party, and to deal Mr. Gladstone a mortal 
blow at the same time. The miserable conspiracy has 
failed, however. Mr. Parnell is vindicated and the 
Thunderer will have to try some other tactics. It is 
safe to assume that it will not asperse the great Irish 
leader again. One of the reasons which inspired the 
settlement with Mr. Parnell was undoubtedly the 
Times' determination to avoid disclosing under oath 
its circulation, which has decreased at a rapid rate in 
recent years." — Chicago Tribune^ Feb, ^th, i8po. 



196 THE LIGHT OF PERSIA ; OR 

This is a pure case of pot calling the kettle black, 
and right here I want to draw an analogy between the 
attacks upon Mr. Parnell by the London Thnes, in 
which he was vilified as a conspirator lending counsel 
to murder even, and the attacks upon the so-called 
anarchists by the ' ' press ' ' of this country before dur- 
ing and since that travestie upon law which condemned 
to death four innocent men, for opinion's sake, and 
three more to a life sentence in Joliet Prison for hav- 
ing uttered truth upon the streets of Chicago. 

See pages, 65, 84, 135, 140, and 142. — G. P. M. 



CLASSICAL OPINIONS 
Both Ancient and Modern. 



Our laws are very flexible. . . . The laws of the State of 
Illinois are peculiarly flexible and accommodating." — Chicago 
Tribune. 



' ' The populace condemn what the}^ do not under- 
stand . " — Cicero . 

' ' The ultimate tendency of civilization is towards 
barbarism.,' ' — Hare. 

"Revolutions are terrible affairs, but they are as 
necessary as amputation when mortification sets in." 
— Henrich Heine. 



THE DEATH OF MAMMON. 1 97 

Are not the millionaires rolling and rotting in lim- 
berger luxury, indolence and viciousness ? — G. P. M. 

"It is only by making the ruling few uneasy that 
the oppressed many can obtain a particle of relief." — 
Jeremy Bentham. 

"For it so happens that the ease, the luxury, and 
the abundance of the highest state of civilization are 
as productive of selfishness as the difficulties, the pri- 
vations and the sterilties of the lowest." — Colton. 

' ' With some the word liberty may mean for each 
man to do as he pleases with himself and the product 
of his labor, while with others the same word may 
mean for some men to do as they please with other 
men and the product of other men's labor." — Abra- 
ham Lincoln. 

" If we expect the virtues of manhood we must se- 
cure the conditions of manhood. — Heber Newton. 

" Whatever the apparent cause of any riots may be, 
the real one is always want of happiness. ... A 
great part of that order which reigns among mankind is 
not the effect of government. It had its origin in the 
principles of society, and the natural constitution of 
man. It existed prior to government and would exist 
if the formality of government was abolished. . . . 
In fine, society performs of itself almost everything 
which is ascribed to government The 



198 l^H^ LIGHT 01^ PERSIA ; OR 

more perfect civilization is, the less occasion has it fof 
government, because the more does it regulate its own 
affairs, and govern itself ; but so contrary is the prac- 
tice of all governments to the reason of the case, that 
the expenses ef them increase in the proportion they 
ought to diminish. It is but few general laws that 
civilized life requires, and those of such common use- 
fullness, that whether they are enforced by the forms 
of government or not, the effect will be nearly the 
same." — Tom Paine. 

" I pity, execrate and hate the man who has only 
to brag that he is white Liberty, Fra- 
ternity, Equality — these three grandest words in all the 
languages of men. Liberty : Give to every man the 
fruit of his own labor. Fraternity: Every man in the 
right is my brother. Equality : The rights of all 
men are equal. . . . When you stop free speech, 
when you say that a thought shall die in the womb of 
the brain, it would have the same effect upon the intel- 
lectual world that to stop springs at their sources 
would have upon the physical world. I have always 
said that the more liberty there is given away, the 
more liberty you have. — Robert Ingersoll. 

The landlords of England have ruled it six hundred 
years, the corporations of America mean to rule it in 
the same way, and ■ unless some power more radical 
than that of ordinary politics is found, will rule it inev- 

itabl}^ No civil society, no government 

can exist except on the basis of the willing submission 
of all its citizens, and b}^ the performance of the duty 



THE DEATH OF MAMMON. 1 99 

of rendering equal justice between man and man. 
Whatever calls itself a government, and refuses that 
duty, or has not that assent, is no government. It is 

only a pirate ship This is historicall/ 

true — that no reform, moral or intellectual, ever came 
down from the upper classes of society. Each and all 
come up from the protest of martyr and victim. In 
other words, as Byron expressed it : "Who would be 
free themselves must strike the blow." — We7idell 
Phillips. 

' ' The destitute laborer might better be a slave than 
free, for the slave must be supported by his master, 
while the free laborer is left to starve."— /?^^<? T. M. 
Cooky. 

"A nation is to seek the greatest good of all, not of 
the greatest number ; not to sacrifice the minority to 
the majority, nor one single man to the whole." — 
Theodore Parker. 

"Everything in the universe is bought and sold, 
and why not wind? .... The earth is rented 

from its surface down to its central mines 

The fire and the means of feeding it are currently 
bought and sold. . . . The wretches that sweep 
the boisterous ocean with their nets pay ransom for 
the privilege of being drowned in it. . . . What 
title has the air to be exempted from the universal 
curse of traffic ? .... In many countries the 
priests will sell you a portion of heaven. . . . , 



200 THE LIGHT OF PERSIA ; OR 

111 all countries men are willing to buy in exchange 
for health, wealth and peace of conscience, a full allow- 
ance of hell." — Sir Walter Scott. 

"Every actual state is corrupt Every 

child that is born must have a just chance for its bread. 
. . . . We live in a very low state of the world, 
and pay willing tribute to a government founded on 

force The less government the better — 

the fewer laws the less confided power 

People do not seem to think that society can be main- 
tained without artificial restraints, or that the private 
citizen might be reasonable and a good neighbor, with- 
out the hint of a jail or confiscation A 

man who cannot be acquainted with me ; looking from 
afar, ordains that a part of my labor shall go to the 
government, that whimsical end, not as I, but as he 
happens to fancy. Behold the consequences. Of all 
debts, men are the less wnlling to pay taxes. What a 
satire is this upon government ! everywhere they seem 
to think they get their money's w^orth except for 
these I own I have little esteem for gov- 
ernments Of course the timid and base 

persons, all who are conscious of no worth in them- 
selves, and who owe all their place to the opportu- 
nities under the old order of things which allows them 
to deceive and defraud men, shudder at a change, and 
would silence every honest voice, and lock up every 
house where liberty and innovation can be pleaded 
for. They would raise mobs, for fear is very cruel. 
. . . If we look wider, things are all alike ; laws 



THE DEATH OF MAMMON. 20I 

and letters and creeds and modes of living seem a tra- 
vestie of truth. 

Our society is encumbered by ponderous machinery, 
which resembles the endless acqueducts which the 
Romans built over hill and dale, and which are su- 
perceded by the discovery of the law that water rises 
to the level of its source. It is a Chinese wall that 
any nimble Tartar can leap over. It is a standing 
army, not so good as a peace. It is a graduated, 
titled, richly appointed Empire quite superfluous when 
Town-meetings are found to answer just as well." — 
Ralph Waldo Emerson. 

" A man with $1,000,000 a year eats the w^hole fruit 
of 5,656 men's labor through a year, for you can get a 
stout spadesman to work and maintain himself for the 
sum of $1 50. Thus we have private individuals whose 
wages are equal to the wages of 7,000 or 8.000 indi- 
viduals. What do those highly benefited individuals 
do to society for their wages? Kill partridges ! Can 
this last ? No ; by the soul that is in man, it cannot 

and shall not A man willing to work 

and unable to find work is perhaps the saddest sight 
that fortune's inequality exhibits under the sun. . . 
. . That he might be put on a level with the four- 
footed workers on the planet which is his ! There is 
not a horse willing to work but can get his food and 
shelter in requital ; a thing this two-footed worker has 
to seek for, to solicit for occasionally in vain. And 
yet it is currently reported that the two-footed worker 
has an immortal soul within him." — Thomas Carlyle. 



202 THE LIGHT OF PERSIA ; OR 

' ' The root of socialism in its mali-gnant (?) form is 
the idea that the vast mass of men have the same 
rights as those at the top. They have not ! They 
have the right to hve, the primar}^ conditions of hfe 
are universal ; but the right to all the things belong- 
ing to civilization depends upon what a man is. The 
man who is merely bone and muscle has no right to 
that kind ; he has a right to fodder, certainly." — 
Henry Ward Beecher. 

Was blasphemy ever more fiendish? Was a heart 
ever much blacker, ever filled with more putrid cor- 
ruption ? This wrecker — this wicked scandal maker, 
this so-called preacher at a salary of $40,000. Where 
is he now ? Is not the bone and muscle of one man 
as dear to himself and to the nation as is the so-called 
brains of some others ? If not then there is no virtue 
in the teaching of Jesus Christ, nor in society, nor in 
governments ; and wherein we expect little virtue in 
governments, we do expect it of individuals, espec- 
ially of those who are ' ' on top. ' ' But how came these 
individuals "on top" and how did they get there, 
honestly ? I doubt it, and being there, what virtue 
did they ever hand down to "the vast mass of men" 
who earned the bread they consumed to feed and cram 
the brains with vicious vituperations, to find utterance 
years after to the applause of our so-called Society- ? — 
Geo. P. Mclntyre. 

' ' The good are better made by ill ; 
As odors crushed are sweeter still." 

— Samuel Rogers. 



THE DEATH OF MAMMON. 203 

" Men are starving to death under our civilization 
of to-day, and it is only in civilized society that men 
starve to death."— y^^;z G. Huhn. 

Now it is important to enquire whether it is not in 
the nature of uncontrolled power always to abuse 
itself. For my part I have no doubt of it, and should 
as soon see the power that could arrest a stone in fall- 
ing, proceed from the stone itself as to trust force 
within any defined limits. I should like to be shown 
a country where slavery has been abolished by volun- 
tary action of the masters." — Bastiat. 

' ' Congress shall make no law abridging the free- 
dom of speech or of press. It is neither more or less 
. than that every man shall be at liberty 
to publish what is true, with good motives and for 
justifiable ends. And. . . . it is not only right 
in itself, but it is an inestimable privilege in a free 
government No one can doubt the im- 
portance in a free government of a right to canvass 
the acts of public men, and the tendency of public 
measures, to censure boldly the conduct of rulers, and 
scrutinize closely the policy and plans of the govern- 
ment. If we would preserve it, public opinion must 
be enlightened ; political vigilance must be incul- 
cated ; free, but not licentious discussion, must be en- 
couraged." — Story, on Constitution, Vol. 2, page ddy, 
Sectio7i 1880. 

"Upon a large survey of the whole subject, he has 
not scrupled to declare that : "It has become a con- 



204 THE LIGHT OF PERSIA ; OR 

stitutional principle in this country, that every citi- 
zen may freely speak, write and publish his senti- 
ments, being resp07isible for the abuse of that riQ;ht ; and 
that no law can rightfully be passed to restrain or 
abridge the freedom of the press." — Mr. Chancellor 
Kent. 

VICTOR HUGO. 



His Remarkable Address to the Rich and 

Poor. 



His Most Precious Legacy to Humanity. 



One Message to the Rich, the Other to the 

Poor. 



The Sum of Human Wisdom.. 

' ' I am asked what has been the lesson of my life, 
which I have learned in my years of living to bequeath 
as my most precious legacy to humanity. I reply that 
my soul has two messages of counsel, of promise and 
of threat, to deliver. One to the rich, the other to the 
poor. The two contain the sum of human wisdom. 

To The Rich : 

The poor cry out to the wealthy. The slaves im- 
plore their rulers. And as much now as in the days 
of Spartan Helots. I am one of theu^ anA 1 ad(? my 



THE DEATH OF MAMMON. 205 

voice to that of the multitude that it may reach the 
ears of the rich. Who am I ? One of the people. 
From whence come I? From the bottomless pit. How 
am I named? I am Wretchedness. My lords, I have 
something to say to you. My lords, you are placed 
high. You have power, opulence, pleasure, the sun 
immovable at your zenith, unlimited authorit}^ enjoj^- 
ment undivided, a total forgetfulness of others. So 
be it. But there is something below you. Above you, 
perhaps. My lords, I impart to you a novelty. The 
human race exists. I am he who comes from the depths. 
My lords, you are the great and the rich. That is 
perilous. You take advantage of the night. But 
have a care ; there is a greater power, the morning. 
The dawn cannot be vanquished. It will come. It 
comes. It has within it the outbreak of irresistible 
day. You, you are the dark clouds of privilege. Be 
afraid. The true master is about to knock at the door. 
What is the father of privilege? Chance. What is 
his son ? Abuse . Neither chance nor abuse is enduring . 
They have, both of them, an evil to-morrow. I come 
to warn you. I come to denounce you your own bliss. 
It is made out of the ills of others. Your paradise 
is made out of the hell of the poor. I come to open 
before 3'ou, the wealthy, the grand assizes of the poor 
— that sovereign who is the slave, that convict who is 
the judge. I am bowed down under what I have to 
say. Whereto begin? I know not. I have picked 
up in the cruel experience of suffering, my vast though 
struggling pleas. Now what shall I do with them? 



2o6 THE LIGHT OF PERSIA ; OR 

They overwhelm me and I throw them forth, pell- 
mell before me. 

I am a diver, and I bring up from the depths a pearl, 
the Truth. I speak because I know, I have experi- 
enced. I have seen. Suffering? No, the word is 
weak, O masters in bliss ! Poverty — I have grown up 
in it ; winter — I have shivered in it ; famine — I have 
tasted it ; scorn — I have undergone it; the plague — I 
have had it; shame — I have drunk of it. I felt it 
requisite that I should come among you . Why ? 
because of my 3^esterday's rags. It was in order that 
my voice might be raised among the satiated, that God 
coming — led me with the hungered. Oh ! you know 
not this fatal world, whereto you believe that you be- 
long. So high, you are outside of it. I will tell you 
what it is. Abandoned, an orphan, alone in bound- 
less creation, I made my entry into this gloom that 
you call society. The first thing I saw was law, un- 
der the form of a gibbet ; the second was wealth — it is 
3^our wealth under the form of a woman dead of cold 
and hunger ; the third was luxury under the shape of 
a hunted man chained to prison walls ; the fourth was 
your palaces beneath the shadow of which cowered 
the tramp. The human race has been made by you 
slaves and convicts. You have made of this earth a 
dungeon. Light ;s wanting, air is wanting, virtue is 
wanting. The workers of this world whose fruits j-ou 
enjoy, live in death. There are little girls who begin 
at eight by prostitution, and who end at twenty by 
old age. 



THE DEATH OF MAMMON. 207 

Who of you have been to Newcastle-on-Tjaie ? 
There are men in the mines who chew coal, to fill the 
stomach and cheat hunger. Look 5'ou to Lancashire. 
Misery everywhere. Are 3^ou aware that the Harlech 
fiishermen eat grass when the fishery fails ? Are you 
aware that at Burton Lazers there are still certain 
lepers driven into the woods who are fired at if they 
come out of their dens ? In Peckridge there are no 
beds in the hovels, and holes are dug in the ground 
for little children to sleep in ; so that in place of begin- 
ning with the cradle they begin with the tomb. Mercy, 
have mercy for the poor ? Oh ! I conj ure you, have 
pity ! But no, you will not. I know vn atx ; Dkvils 

BRED IN HELI. AND DOGS WITH HEARTS OF STONE. 

Upward to your golden thrones for ages has gone 
THE cry of misery, the groan of hunger and the sob 
of despair, and yE heard it not. What mercy thou 
hast given shall be meted out to you in turn. Bear 
in mind that the series of Kings armed w4th the sword 
was interrupted by Cromwell with an ax. Tremble ! 
The incorruptible dissolutions draw near ; the clipped 
talons push out again ; the torn out tongues take to 
flight, become tongues of flame scattered to the wings 
of darkness, and they howl in the Infinite. They 
who are hungry show their idle teeth. Paradises built 
over hells, totter. There is suffering, there is suffer- 
ing, and that which is above leans over, and that 
which is below gaps open. The shadow asks to 
become light. The damned discuss the elect. It is 
the people who are on-coming. I tell you it is man 
who ascends. 



2o8 THE LIGHT OF PERSIA ; OR 

It is the end that is beginning. It is the red dawn- 
ing of Catastrophe. Ah ! this society is false. One 
day, and soon, the true society will come. Then there 
will be no more lords ; there will be free, living men. 
There will be no more wealth, there will be abundance 
for the poor. There will be no more masters, but 
there will be brothers. They that toil shall have. 
This is the future. No more prostration, no more 
abasement, no more ignorance, no more wealth, no 
more beasts of burden, no more courtiers, no more 
kings— but LIGHT. 

To The Poor. 

Shall I now speak to the poor after having in vain 
implored the rich ? Yes, it is fitting. This, then, have 
I to say to the disinherited : Keep a watch on your 
abominable jaw. 

There is one rule for the rich — to do nothing, and 
one for the poor — to say nothing. The poor have but 
one friend, silence. They should use but one mono- 
sylable : Yes. To confess and to concede — this is all 
the "rights" they have. **Yes," to the judge. 
"Yes," to the king. The great, if it so please them 
give us blows with a stick ; I have had them ; it is 
their prerogative, and they lose nothing of their great- 
ness in cracking our bones. Let us worship the scep- 
ter which is the first among sticks. If a poor man is 
happy he is the pick -pocket of happiness. Only the 
rich and noble are happy by right. The rich man is 
he who being 3'oung, has the rights of old age ; being 
old, the lucky chances of youth ; vicious, the respect 



THE DEATH OF MAMMON. 209 

of good people ; a coward, the command of the stout- 
hearted; doing nothing, the fruits of labor. Car- 
riages, poor slave, exist. The Lord is inside ; the 
people are under the wheel ; the wise man makes room . 
The people fight. Whose is the glory ? The kings. 
They pay. Whose is the magnificence? The kings. 
And the people like to be rich in this fashion. Our 
ruler, King or Crossus, receive from the poor a crown 
piece, and renders back to the poor a farthing. How 
generous he is ! The collossal pedestal looks up to 
the pigmy superstructure. How tall the mankin is •' 
He is on my back. A dwarf has an excellent method 
of being higher than a giant, it is to perch himself 
upon the other's shoulders. But that the giant should 
let him do it, there's the odd part of it; and that he 
should admire the baseness of the dwarf, there's the 
stupidity. Human ingenuousness ! 

The equestrian statue, reserved for Kings alone is 
an excellent type of royalty. Let us be frank with 
words. The Capitalists who steals the reward of labor 
is a king as well as the man of 'blood. The king 
mounts himself on the horse. The horse is the people. 
Sometimes this horse transfigures himself by degrees. 
At the beginning he is an ass ; at the end he is a lion. 
Then he throws his rider to the ground and we have 
1643 in England and 1789 in France; and sometimes 
he devours him, in which case we have in England 
1649 and in France 1793. That the lion can again 
become a jackass, this is surprising but a fact. What 
happiness to be again ridden and beaten and starved . 
What happiness to work for ever for bread and water ! 



2IO THE LIGHT OF PERSIA ; OR 

What happiness to be free from the delusions that 
cake is good, and hfe other than misery ! Was there 
anything more crazy than those ideas ? Where should 
we be if every vagabond had his rights ? Imagine 
everybody governing ! Can you fancy a city directed 
by the men who built it? They are the team not the 
coachman. What a God-send is a rich man who takes 
charge of everything : Surely he is generous to take 
this trouble for us ! And then he was brought up to 
it ; he knows what it is ; it is his business. A guide 
is necessary for us. Being poor we are ignorant ; 
being ignorant we are blind; we need a guide. But 
why are we ignorant ? Because it must be so . Ig- 
norance is the guardian of Virtue ! He who is ignor- 
ant is innocent ! It is not our duty to think, com- 
plain or reason. These truths are uncontestable. So- 
ciety reposes on them. What is " society?" Misery 
for you if you support it. Death if you dare touch it. 
Be reasonable, poor man, you were made to be a slave. 
Not to be a slave is to dare and do." — Victor Hugo. 



THE DEATH OF MAMMON. 211 



BEFORE THE WAR, 

AS WAS 

Wm. Lloyd Garrison, 

Wendell Phillips, 

Martyrs Lovejoy and Brown, 

Harriet Beecher Stowe, 

Abraham Lincoln, 

And many others in conviction, 

So am I. 



212 THE UGHT OF PERSIA ; OR 



DURING THE WAR IN WAYS AND MEANS 

AND Since Then, as was 

Peter Cooper, 

Wendell Phillips, 

Thad. Stevens, 

Judge William Kelley, 

Henry Wilson, 

Salmon P. Chase, 

D. P. Mitchell, 

W. H. T. Wakefield, 

John Davis, 

And tens of thousands other illustrious men, 

So was and am I. 



THE DEATH OF MAMMON. 21^ 

IN GOVERNMENTS, 

AS Was, and Are. 

Socrates, 

Plato, 

Archimedes, 

Mazzini, 

Voltaire, 

Oliver Cromwell, 

"Junius," 

Tom Paine, 

Walter Scott, 

Patrick Henry, 

Henrich Heine, 

Thomas Carlyle, 

Victor Hugo, 

Herbert Spencer, 

J. S. Mill, 

Thomas Jefferson, 

Ralph Waldo Emerson, 

Wendell Phillips, 

Robert IngersoU, 

W. H. T. Wakefield, 

Hugh O. Pentecost, 

David Overmyer, 

George C. Clemens, 

Samuel Gompers, 

P. G. McGuyre, 

John Most, 

Burnette G. Haskell, 

Frank Q. Stewart, 



^14 'I'HE LIGHT OF PERSIA ; OR 

Benj. R. Tucker, 

W. C. Owens, 
George A. Schilling, 
Lawrence Gronlund, 

Dyer D. Lnm, 
William Holmes, 
Albert R. Parson, 

August Spies, 

Louis Ivingg, 
Oscar W. Neebe, 
Adolph Fischer, 
Michael Schawb, 

George Kngel, 
Samuel Fielden, 

And thousands upon tens of thousands others ' ' salt 
of the earth," these would I emulate, for as these were 
and are so am I. 

" God moves not otherwise. There is no new birth, 
But has its corresponding throes of agony ; 

The labor pains of all the teeming earth 

But shape the course of Destiny !" — Anonymous. 



THE END. 



THE DEATH OF MAMMON. 215 



SLAVERY. 

While I now this "proof" am reading, 

Softly through the open door, 
Comes a melody revealing. 

The confessions of the poor — 
And the words so fraught with meaning, 

Stir my manhood till it whirls 
Into maddened frenzy, streaming 

From my eyes, for these poor girls; 
Who are singing, sighing, singing 

Mournfully with rhythmic stress. 
Keeping time to the clatter and the rattle of the press, 
And those mournful words are ringing, 
Whilst the great machinery whirls — 
*Ah, "there's nothing left but slavery for poor honest 

working girls. 



* Words italicised are the author's.— February 4th, 1890. 



2l6 THE LIGHT OF PERSIA ; OR 



MRS. GEO. P. McINTYRE, PUBLIC READER, 
CHICAGO, ILL. 



The Announcement. 

first voice. 
Through m}'- wife will I speak to the people 

Of the wrongs which burthen the poor ; 
Until few are the homes where laughter may come. 

Because of "The wolf at the door." 

SECOND VOICE. 

For the goodness of Truth will I utter 

The burthens which fetter the poor ; 
In the Hope that all greed from the earth may recede, 

And with it "The Wolf from the door !" 

^ BOTH VOICES. 

As helpmeets together we labor, 

In behalf of the sorrowing poor ; 
In the Faith that the day is not faraway, 

When the " Wolf" will be Thrust from each door. 



THE DEATH OF MAMMON. 217 



ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS. 

I take pleasure in acknowledging the obligations I 
am under to Mr. Edgar S. Werner, 48 University 
Place, N. Y., Publisher of that most worthy compila- 
tion, " Elocutionary Studies and New Recitations," 
(By Mrs. Anna Randall Deihl), from which was taken 
" The Voice of the People," the author of which men- 
tion is made under the heading 'Dedicatory.' And, 
also to my friend, Wm. Holmes, whose Scrap-book I 
found invaluable in this compilation. And to my 
wife, ever ready to promote good, who, living in an 
age of ' ' Shoddy shams' ' is keen to discern and to probe 
— * * the good phpsician and healer, ' ' whose heart and 
purse, which the "Elephant has stepped on," is ever 
open to the destitute and needy, I am proud to ac- 
knowledge as the helper in this as in every other act 
of my life by tendencies ever Upward and Onward ! 

Thk Author. 



THE DEATH OF MAMMON. 2I9 

CONTENTS. 

Order of Poems — When Written . 
No. Page 

1. Yearnings, - - - Aug. 1877, 29 

2. An Apostrophe to Luna, - Dec, 1S78, 30 

3. The Pessimist - - Mar. 1887 32 

4. Toolvate - - . Feb. 1888 35 

5. Greenbacks ? Yes ! - - July 1888 37 

6. Almost a Tragedy, - - May 1889 42 

7. The Muster — A Prophecy, - Oct. 1889 46 

8. America - - - Oct. 1889 51 

9. Embalm It, - - - - Oct. 1889 56 

10. The Tree of State, - - Nov. 1889 60 

11. The Grooming of the Giant, - Dec. 1889 65 

12. The lyight of Persia - - Jan. 1890 69 

13. The Answer - - May 1886 76 

14. The Appeal - - - Jan. 1890 78 

15. True Men, By J. G. Holland, - - 79 

16. Why is This? By N. P. Willis - - 79 

17. VoY^riy, By M. H. Veon - - 81 
13. The Tocsin, By Win. Clarke Marshall - 82 

19. In ^^mori2im, By Dyer D. Lu7n, - 83 

20. Illinois, By Wm. Clarke Marshall - 84 

21. To One Who Was Afraid, By Charles Mackey 87 

22. Our Martyrs, A7ion - - - 89 

23. Unes On The Above - - Feb. 1890 91 

24. The Poet, By Charles Edwin Markham - 92 



220 



THE LIGHT OF PERSIA ; OR 



25. Slavery - 

26. The Invocation 

27. The Announcement 
27. Encyclical, By Keats, 



Feb. 1890 213 
May 1883 93 
Jan. 1890 215 

4 



28. Song of the Cannon- Ball, By Anon, - 27 

29. The Voice of the People, By /as. G. Clark, 18 

30. The Announcement, - Jan., 1890, 215 



* NOTES ON POEMS, ETC., ETC. 



Table of First Eines, 

Free Speech, - - . 

The Pessimist, - - - 

Greenbacks ? Yes ! 

Almost a Tragedy, 

The Muster — A Prophecy, 

America, - - . - 

Embalm It, - 

The Tree of State, - 

The Grooming of the Giant, - 

The Eight of Persia, 

Why Farmers are Poor, 

The Great Eondon Strike, Notes on, 

Who Owns America, 



- 95 to 96 
21 to 24 

- 77 to 109 
loi to 109 

- 1 10 to 116 

117 to 122 

- 122 to 133 

133 to 138 

- 139 to 145 
146 to 159 

- 160 to 183 
130 to 133 

- 156 to 159 
184 to 195 



* Poems bearing dates are the author's. 



THE DEATH OF MAMMON. 221 



Parnell's Triumph, Notes on, 

Classical Opinions, 

Victor Hugo's Celebrated Address, 

The Great Reading Strike, 

Trusts Defined, 

The Hod-Carrier's Prayer, 

$300,000,000, Comments on, 

I am What I am: What Are You ? 

The Advertisement, 

Acknowledgments, 



- 195 


to 


196 


196 


to 


204 


- 204 


to 


210 


165 


to 


177 


- 177 


to 


178 


178 


to 


182 


- 182 


to 


183 


210 


to 


211 


- 




215 


- 




216 



